Hotbloods 6: Allies

I nodded. “Absolutely. Stone here—the guy with the nudus—he also happens to be our secret weapon.”

“He doesn’t look very impressive,” she muttered, turning to him. “No offense.”

He shrugged casually. “None taken.”

“He’s an ambaka. While we put up the shield across the globe, to prevent Queen Gianne from landing on Earth, Stone here will lead the attack on the rebels.”

A gasp rose from her throat. “An… ambaka, did you say?”

“Bit more impressive now, eh?” Stone joked, winking at the lycan leader.

“If we split our resources, I’m sure we can take on both sides,” I urged, trying to keep the desperation from creeping into my voice.

Commander Mahlo said nothing for a long time, her orange eyes fixed on Stone. He didn’t seem to mind too much, lolling in his chair, but her silence troubled me. What if we’d come all this way and she nixed the whole thing in one fell swoop? Behind me, anxious looks drifted between the rest of my friends and crewmates, with Alfa and Dio getting antsy at the back of the room.

“I suppose I must be honest with you now, as you’ve been so honest with me. I wasn’t sure whether I could trust you, at first, but you have proven yourselves worthy allies of our mutual cause,” she said slowly, as if picking her words carefully. “You see, we’ve known about the rebel coldbloods for a while, as you’re aware. No doubt you’re wondering why we haven’t done anything about them.”

We all nodded.

“Well, it pains me to admit it, but it was easier to let them be, as they seemed to be keeping to themselves. A few humans were disappearing, that is true, but fighting coldbloods is no easy task. It’s why the Fed have kept out of Vysanthean troubles for decades.”

“But things have changed?” I asked.

“Yes, in the wake of my friend Galo’s disappearance, and my subsequent promotion, I ordered my taskforce to track all ships leaving Earth and all ships leaving Vysanthe. Our Fed radar is a sensitive thing, and can detect invisibility shields, such as yours,” the commander continued. “As such, I can tell you that Queen Gianne’s and Queen Brisha’s ships have already departed Vysanthe. I did not realize they were in possession of deep-space technology, but given a basic trajectory using these engines you spoke of, the queens’ ships will be here in a matter of days.”

With the queens’ ships on their way, the timeline was going to be a tight one. I paused as I replayed the words in my mind—Queen Gianne and Queen Brisha? That couldn’t be right.

“You’ve got to be mistaken, Commander Mahlo. Queen Brisha can’t have left Vysanthe. She was assassinated. I know any news coming from the South has to be taken with a pinch of salt, but I doubt they could make up Queen Brisha’s death.”

Commander Mahlo frowned in thought. “Has her army been decommissioned?”

“Her soldiers must still be fighting in their queen’s name,” Bashrik interjected.

Navan nodded. “Working alongside them, I’d never seen such loyal warriors before. I wouldn’t be surprised if they fight until there isn’t a single one of them left.”

“You realize that means both queens know about the deep-space tech and Earth, don’t you?” Lauren added grimly.

“From what you’ve all told me of these twin queens, that should not come as a surprise,” Xiphio mused. “I was not well-acquainted with them, the way most of you were, but I got the feeling they were constantly spying and stealing secrets from one another.”

“Always the way with fancy folk. Can’t help ‘emselves. Always wantin’ what someone else has got,” Stone added.

Commander Mahlo smiled, excitement flickering in her orange eyes. “The thing is, now that you’ve told me of your plans, you have granted us a glimmer of hope.” She took a nervous breath. “Ever since we discovered the rebels, we’ve had a plan of action in place, in case the queens ever came to exact punishment on their defectors. Now, with the ships leaving Vysanthe, we’ve had to put it in place as quickly as possible. We’ve been planning to launch a surprise attack on the queens’ ships before they can even land. It was set to be a suicide mission, but it was the only plan we had.”

“It still sounds like a suicide mission to me!” Alfa joked. Dio nudged him sharply in the ribs.

“What my friend means to say is, how have your plans changed?” he said.

“To be honest, my mind is still trying to figure that out. You have offered us some solutions that may take a fraction of the risk away,” she replied thoughtfully. “However, it still presents us with some problems, too. For one, although I think the nudus shields can be very useful, I’m not sure how we can avoid the mass panic that will follow if we forge them across the globe.”

Lauren nodded, tapping her chin. “If we put up the shield, humanity is going to figure out that aliens exist.”

“Precisely.”

“Yeah, but if we don’t put up the shield, then Gianne is going to land on Earth and capture—or worse, kill—massive numbers of humans for her elixir,” I protested. “She’ll harvest them like crops, and you can be sure as hell, when they’re being drained dry for their blood, they’ll know about aliens then.”

I was starting to wonder if it even mattered. Those who knew about us thought of Earth as an embryonic planet with a lesser species living on it. To them, we were backwater nobodies that had yet to branch out and join the rest of the universe. We weren’t advanced enough, by their standards, but maybe it was time for us to take that step. As a species, we’d been theorizing about the presence of aliens for decades, so why not reveal the truth? I mean, it was ridiculous to believe we could be the only sentient beings in a universe this large.

“You could be right,” Commander Mahlo mused. “We could always contact the world leaders and get the word out. They may be able to find a way to ease the panic better than we can.”

“The US might already be one step ahead of you there,” I said bluntly.

“How do you mean?”

“My friends and I came across the US president on a planet called the Junkyard. I imagine you’ve heard of it. Anyway, he was in the middle of a meeting with Ezra, Orion’s right-hand man. So, it’s pretty reasonable to guess he’s in cahoots with the rebels. I think they’d struck a deal of some kind, but it was hard to hear the full extent of what they were talking about.”

Commander Mahlo looked disappointed. “Yes, that does complicate matters somewhat. Do you think he’s allied the US with the rebels already?”

“I’m not sure how far it’s gone.”

Commander Mahlo sighed wearily. “Then I’m not sure what to suggest.”

“How about we find a way to get a global broadcast out ourselves?” Lauren suggested, her voice hopeful. It was the best idea we had, and I could tell everyone thought the same. A murmur of agreement ran around the room.

“Damn good idea, Ren,” Stone replied, before turning his attention to Commander Mahlo. “Don’t suppose ye heard of any weapons findin’ their way to the rebels, did ye?”

It was something that had been bothering me, too. If the Fed had special radar, they might’ve noticed some unusual activity in the days since Ezra had run from the Junkyard.

“I’m not sure about any weapons, but a ship did return a while ago—just the one. The same one had left Earth some time earlier, but it looked beaten up on its return. I could check the system and see if we have any more details on where it visited.”

I didn’t need any system telling me where that ship had been. There was only one culprit that fit the timeframe, and that culprit was Ezra, returning from the Junkyard with Yorrek’s notebook in tow. I wasn’t sure if his crew had managed to get their hands on any of the pilfered serrantium weapons, or if Ezra had even returned to pick them up, but I knew he had the most important item of all.