Dark Planet Warriors: The Serial (Books 1-3) (2 page)

My kind isn’t used to such conditions.
 

“I told you,” I growl in Universal, looming over the female soldier, who has identified herself as the head of this rabble. “We are not assuming possession of this station. We have no interest in Humans. But you will provide us with the resources and personnel to repair our craft. And you will clear this dock of any unnecessary Human workers while repairs are underway.”

My team surrounds me, tense and ready to burst into action if needed. So far, this Human female has been sensible enough not to threaten us. For that, at least, I have to applaud her instincts.

“With all due respect,” she snaps back, in passable, heavily accented Universal, “you and your men represent an unsanctioned arrival. And that is a breach of security protocol. There are procedures we need to follow before we can assist you with anything. I don’t even know who you are. You could begin by at least having the decency to identify yourself.”

I glare at her. Are all Humans this entitled? Is this female somehow confused? I’m a general of the Kordolian Empire. I don’t have to explain shit to any species in the nine galaxies. Beside me, Rykal, our newest recruit, bristles, raising his plasma cannon. “Respect, female. Would you like me to remind you what it means?”

Under her ridiculous oversized helmet and bulky armor, the female soldier stiffens in outrage. “Is this how Kordolians rule their empire? With threats?”

It’s true, but I ignore her taunt. I hold up a hand, motioning for Rykal to stand down. “Patience,” I murmur in Kordolian, too low for any of the Humans to hear. “Let me handle this. Fighting will just waste time, and we don’t have much time.”

I’m irritated as fuck, but I make the effort to soften my tone. “I am Commander General Tarak Kal Akkadian, of the Kordolian First Division. We have experienced an enemy attack and request temporary refuge on Fortuna Tau to repair our battle cruiser. We have been engaged in mid-space warfare and have arrived here unintentionally. We are not here on hostile terms.”

The woman clearly doesn’t believe me, because her expression hasn’t changed. “You threatened to blow up the station if we didn’t allow you to dock. How is that not hostile?”

I take a step forward, and a few Human trigger fingers twitch. They don’t know that I can smell their fear. Even though we’re outnumbered three to one by the Humans, they seem to recognize their natural predators.

Once upon a time, our ancestors might have considered them a food source.

The Humans are a strange looking species. Their skin comes in all shades of brown, from very pale to very dark, and their eyes are odd colors. Blue, green, brown, black. The soldiers before me are wearing old fashioned non-symbiotic combat gear. It doesn’t suit the wearer’s needs as well as our exo-suits.

I size them up and find them to be little of a threat.

I tower over their female leader, staring down into her blue eyes. To her credit, she doesn’t flinch.

“Make no mistake,” I say softly. “We
can
be hostile, if we wish. I am offering you the easy option. So are you going to waste my time, or not?”

“That’s not my decision.” There must be something in my voice, because she steps back holding up her hands in surrender. “I’ll take you to the Station Boss, but you all need to disarm.”

I smile then, showing my fangs. Humans don’t have fangs. They have flat, straight, white herbivore’s teeth. “How about we keep our weapons and you take us to your boss?”

“But protocol dictates that-”

All this talk of protocol and rules. It’s making my head hurt. The headache has crept behind my eyes, turning into an insistent, stabbing pain.

I’m out of patience.

“Rykal,” I mutter, making a discreet signal with my hand. He knows what to do. Before the Human can blink, he’s moving, a black blur of motion, coming up behind her, disarming her, her simple weapon dropping to the floor with a metallic clatter. The Humans raise a sea of guns against us, but Rykal has a Callidum dagger pressed against her throat.

“Any of you so much as twitch and your boss dies. And so do you.” It’s not an idle threat. We’re bigger. Faster. Stronger. Our technology is better. They’re outmatched, and they know it. “As I said before, it’s not a request. It’s a demand. And I am not interested in your ‘protocol’. We will not disarm. We are not going anywhere.”

The Human captive glares at me with her odd, icy blue eyes. But she’s smart enough not to resist.

“You stay here,” I add, “as security. Any one of you decides to do something stupid, she dies. Rykal, that’s your responsibility.”

“Sir.”

I point to another Human, a male, who is staring at us with a look of dismay. No doubt the ease at which Rykal took their commander hostage has shocked him. “You. What’s your name?”

“Uh, Jacobs.”

Such strange sounding Human names. I resist the urge to close my eyes and drop my face in my hand. My headache is getting worse. “You will show us the way. Call ahead and warn them not to mount any resistance. Any attempt to attack us will be met with consequences. Do not try my patience, Human. The rest of you stay here. And drop the weapons.”

A muscular Human steps forward, outrage twisting his features. “Fuck you, alien. Think you can just enter our territory and do whatever you want?”

“Yes.” My response is matter-of-fact, and honest. But it sends him over the edge. He raises his cannon.

“Stand down, private, stand down!” The female commander shouts at him, straining against Rykal’s strong arms. “They’re fucking Kordolians. What do you expect to achieve here? You want to get us all killed? Stand down. That’s a direct order.”

The Human looks at us, then at his boss, then back at us. There’s anger in his eyes, but he can’t disobey her command.

He lowers his weapon, laying it on the floor. His comrades follow suit.
 

I issue orders to my troops in Kordolian, selecting two of my more experienced soldiers to accompany me. The rest will stay behind to guard the ship and keep an eye on sthe Humans.

A nervous silence has settled over the Humans as they watch us, fearful and unsure of themselves.

It’s a look I’m used to. Our reputation is well known throughout the nine galaxies, even in this shitty backwater of the universe. Lucky for the Humans, they seem to have above average intelligence, or at least their leader does.

Some species would have attacked by now, inviting all-out slaughter.

“Jacobs.” I motion to the Human I’ve randomly picked out.

“Sir.” His response is instinctive, an automatic reaction to my tone of voice. Military personnel are the same, the universe over.

“What are you waiting for? Lead the way.”

He looks back and forth between me and the female commander. She signals for him to move with an irritated flick of her head. Under the armor, he looks young. I don’t know much about Human lifespans, but he seems to be little more than an adolescent.

With small, hesitant steps, he starts to lead us out of the dock. I come up behind him. “I’m impatient today, private,” I whisper in his ear. He shudders and picks up the pace. Two of my soldiers, Arkan and Kalan, follow behind, their plasma cannons ready.

If anyone tries anything, we will set them to vaporize and blow a hole out the side of this fucking rust bucket.

“Speed it up,” I growl, taking position at the back of the formation. It’s my preferred location in any team. I like to guard the back and see what’s going on at the front.

My headache is pounding now. It’s almost unbearable, but I grit my teeth and force myself to ignore it.

We’re running out of time.

In the middle of a firefight with enemy Xargek, we were accidentally sucked into a wormhole, and it spat us out in this remote corner of the universe. Now, the unstable wormhole is collapsing. We need to get off this station. Somewhere out there is a ship full of Xargek monsters that I need to hunt down and kill.

And I’ll die before I end up stuck on some poorly maintained Human outpost in the middle of nowhere. The sooner we’re gone, the better.

Abbey

On the way back to the lab, I hear footsteps behind me. Because we’ve just been invaded by terrifying aliens, I’m a little bit on edge, so I whirl around, and come face to face with the very last beings I wanted to see.

Three Kordolians glare at me, accompanied by a very scared looking peacekeeper. The poor kid looks barely seventeen, his eyes nervous and wide in a pale, freckled face.

The alien commander looms at the back of their little convoy, silent and scary. He wears a thunderous expression on his face. I freeze in shock, taking in his otherworldly appearance. Up close, he’s even more striking, his luminous grey skin almost shimmering under the artificial light. His eyes, I realize, are a deep shade of red, the color of wine. They’re hard, brutal eyes. He has the look of a killer. And he looks pissed off.

These Kordolians are huge. They tower above the kid and I, filling the wide passageway, making it seem small. A claustrophobic feeling works its way into my gut, and I press my back against the wall as they pass, trying to appear as insignificant as possible.

I hope to hell they don’t notice me. I pray that they’re too busy with whatever it is they’re doing and they’ll just get on their merry way.

But at the last minute, the commander turns, his harsh gaze fixing on me. My heart sinks. He gives me a quick up-and-down, and I do my best to keep a neutral expression on my face.

Stay calm
, I tell myself. I figure these guys are like most predators. When they smell fear, it only encourages them.

The Kordolian narrows his eyes, his nostrils flaring slightly.
 

Why do I suddenly feel as if he’s the hunter, and I’m dinner? It’s making me squirmy. I get an overwhelming urge to sidestep him and scurry off back to my lab. But I don’t think he’d take that too well.

Don’t make any sudden moves
.

I don’t want him to think I’m about to try something reckless. The last thing I want to do is end up as Abbey mincemeat, splattered across the service corridor in sector 9.

The Kordolian inclines his head. He really does have pointed ears. Like an elf.

A stupid, irrational giggle threatens to burst from my lips. I suppress it with all my might.

Wrong place, wrong time. Being scared out of my wits is probably making me delirious.

Stop it, Abbey. Don’t make the big, bad alien angry.

Is this what happens in life-or-death situations? I think I’ve read about something like this. Detachment from reality. Inappropriate hysterics. Those are the symptoms of temporary insanity.

Say something. Make him go away.

“Er, hi there,” I say, in Universal. Everyone who goes into space has to learn Universal. It’s Federation requirements. “You guys seem to be in a hurry, so I’ll just get out of your way.” A tiny laugh escapes me. And immediately, I’m kicking myself.

Seriously Abbey? Was that the best thing you could could come up with?
 

I hold my breath, waiting for his reaction. I try not to stare at his pointy ears and menacing red eyes and rather overwhelming, muscular torso. Because that nano-armor stuff is quite, ah, sculpted. It doesn’t really leave much to the imagination.

“Is something amusing, female?” His deep voice resonates in the confines of the corridor. It’s exactly how I was expecting him to sound. Arrogant. Authoritative. A guy who always gets his way.

Urgh. If he weren’t so intimidating, I’d find him annoying. I hold up my hands in what I hope is a placating gesture. “I’m not amused,” I blurt. “Far from it. I was just thinking about all the things I have to do this afternoon. You know, DNA splicing, plasmid engineering, cleaning oxygen filters, that kind of thing. So I may have come across a little preoccupied.” It’s half-true. I
was
thinking about those things. And the fact that we’ve just been overrun by some of the most dangerous beings in space.

He stares at me blankly, saying nothing. As if he has no idea what I’m talking about.

“I’m a scientist,” I elaborate. “Cleaning biomeric oxygen filters isn’t glamorous, but someone has to do it.”

Still, he says nothing. I have a bad habit of saying too much when I’m nervous.

The deep, red stare never wavers. He narrows his eyes, reaching out with a black-gloved hand. I flinch.

You’ve gone and done it now, Abbey
.

Then his fingers are plucking something from my hair. It’s a piece of greenery. A bit of leaf, from a passionfruit vine, probably stuck there when I crawled through the hydroponic vents, looking for fruits that had been missed in the harvest.

He stares at the leaf critically, then at me, then back at the leaf, shaking his head. He mutters something under his breath in his native language.

Then, in a rush of weapons and armor and sharply issued commands, they’re gone, storming down the passageway, disappearing from view. And once again, the service corridor feels empty, as if their departure has left a vacuum. It’s as if my little encounter had never happened.

And on a positive note, at least I didn’t get killed.

“Crazy Kordolians,” I grumble, running my fingers self-consciously through my hair. Why should I care about what some muscle-bound, galaxy-colonizing, silver-skinned asshole thinks?

Why is my heart still pounding?

Stupid aliens. I sigh, shaking the tension out of my body, blowing a puff of air through my lips. I don’t know what they’re doing on our station, or what they want, and I really don’t care.

I just want to get back to work. As long as they’re not here to colonize the station in the name of the Kordolian Empire and ship us all off to some remote outpost for whatever nefarious purpose, then I’m fine.

They haven’t blown anything up yet, or shot at anyone, so I’m secretly hopeful that they’re just passing by.

Maybe they just want a place where they can fix up their battle cruiser, before taking off to carry on with whatever they were doing in the first place.

They aren’t here because they
want
to be. We Humans and our little planet don’t rank very very high on the intergalactic desirability index.