Shadow of the Blue Ring (5 page)

“I guess we should be getting ready for the party,” James said eventually, the vast majority of the guests already departing the scene and heading back to their rooms, “come on, we should get changed.”

James had been itching to show off his new suit. It had cost him a hell of a lot of money but he was sure it would be worth the trouble, he would quite easily stand out from the crowd wearing it. He and Isha left the pool-side complex and made their way back up to their room, Melina also heading back to her room to get herself ready for the night’s events.

Back in their room, their outfits for the night had already been prepared for them, the staff at the hotel doing their utmost to make their stay as comfortable as possible. Taking a quick shower first, James ditched the summer clothes and changed into his attire for the evening. He had to admit, he was definitely going to be stealing the show tonight, especially with Isha alongside him. After taking the extra time to do her hair and makeup, Isha had donned her outfit for the night, that spectacularly stylish red dress that she had been itching to get into for the last week. It was at times like this that James felt privileged to be married to this woman, she looked simply stunning. She had always been pretty back when they had first met but in the past years since they had been together, she had matured very well and she would be the envy of pretty much every woman there tonight.

“Well look at you,” she said, seeing James in his new suit for the first time, “aren’t you looking smart.”

“And look at you too,” James said back to her, “you look amazing, I’m almost lost for words.”

“Well you had better find some soon, you know Ravenn will make you stand up and speak at some point,” Isha grinned.

“He’ll just want a few words on the good old days,” said James, “it’s nothing I can’t handle, I’m sure he wont expect me to have an essay prepared… I hope”

He had a few words in mind, he would be pretty much prepared for anything that was thrown at him. It was not like he could embarrass himself, he was already thought of as an alliance hero, a few words at a party wouldn’t change anything, or at least that was what he hoped.

Locking up their room, James and Isha made their way down to the front of the hotel where the many transports to take the guests to the main event were waiting. The real event was shortly to begin.

*     *     *     *     *

Ravenn had indeed outdone himself for the evening, the transports that carried the guests to the grand hall of Lahara were nothing less than the most luxurious Churian equivalents of a limousine. The vast majority of the guests had already arrived and were making their way towards the magnificent Grand Hall of Lahara, a building that dwarfed everything around it and was quite honestly, the finest construct in the entire city.

“I can honestly say that tonight really is going to be a night to remember,” James said as he observed the grand Hall, “I don’t think Ravenn could have picked a better spot if he tried.”

The Grand Hall was a massive golden-orange building constructed at the centre of one of the many tropical gardens in the city. There was a large stream of guests heading into the hall from the transport hub nearby, many of them the darker skinned Churians but a healthy scattering of the lighter skinned members of the other races among them. One of them in particular caught James’s eyes and he had caught hers too.

“I’ve been looking everywhere for you!” Exclaimed an excitable Loca Morelli, “I was beginning to think you weren’t coming.”

“Good to see you Loca,” James said, giving her the complimentary hug, “and don’t worry, there was no way I was going to miss this one, the entire Vulian armada couldn’t have stopped me being here. I was hoping I’d run into you here too.”

If James was not a married man, he would have had difficulties resisting the temptations of this woman, even she had outdone herself this this time. She was kitted out in a wonderfully stylish black dress that highlighted every one of her near-perfect features. She would be commanding a fair amount of attention over the course of the evening.

“So… Six years huh?” Said Morelli, “time really has flown by hasn’t it? How have you been?”

“I’ve been Ok I suppose,” James replied, “things haven’t been easy back home, what with the rebuilding efforts and everything that goes with it. How about you? What happened to you after you got back to Voronia?”

“Straight back to work, not a day’s break,” said Morelli, “had to start from scratch pretty much, the chimera plans were still aboard the Morning Star when it went down so I lost pretty much everything I had been working for. I guess I thought I wasn’t coming back from that mission and I probably wouldn’t be needing them again. Oh well, I’m working on some new projects now, hopefully I’ll have them ready by the end of the year.”

Morelli’s chimera suits had probably been the only reason any of them were still alive now. Their protective qualities had helped them survive against impossible odds on the surface of Vulia and live to finish their mission to overthrow the Vulian hierarchy. It was a shame the plans had been lost but with Morelli’s technical capabilities, there was every chance she would deliver something equally as impressive in the near future.

“Wait… !” Morelli suddenly exclaimed, “is that a ring!?” She had noticed the diamond ring on Isha’s finger, her reaction suggested that word had not reached her ears of James and Isha’s big day.

“Yes, it is, we’ve been married three years now,” Isha said proudly, displaying her ring finger for Morelli to see.

“Wow! Well congratulations, I am so happy for you both. Damn it I’m jealous now, I only wish I was as lucky as you two.”

“No men in your life then? Isha asked her.

“Ah, I’d rather not go there,” Morelli said awkwardly, it had never been a subject she had been comfortable discussing, that was one thing that hadn’t changed about her, “shall we make our way to the grand hall then?”

The three of them joined in with the masses heading towards the venue for the night. James could see Kosare among them, kitted out in a very alluring sky-blue dress that was a little shorter and a little lower cut than might be appropriate for the occasion. The girl was hardly known for being shy though. Ansare and his wife Anaya were also visible ahead of them, leading the delegation of Naisans who were in attendance of the party.

Also recognisable from the last time he had been here were the tall, robotic city guardians, the Arkids, lined up around the grand hall as an extra security force should any trouble break out. They looked different this time though, they had been heavily upgraded with extra armour plating on their legs and now had larger bodies which supported extra weapons. Also among them were a group of much larger constructs, similar in shape but over ten meters tall at least and supporting heavy weapons and multiple pulse cannons, the likes of which were normally seen on armoured vehicles.

“Like them?” Morelli asked, seeing James’s gaze drawn towards them, “those are Arkons, the Churian defence committee sought out the help of my father’s company to help design them. They didn’t feel that the Arkids alone were powerful enough to stop the more powerful Vulian war machines so they decided to upgrade their defences.”

“It looks like he did a pretty good job, I wouldn’t want to see an enemy force lead by a legion of those things” James noted, “I’m guessing that isn’t the only thing you’ve been working on since we last saw you though?”

“No, I’ve been travelling quite a bit over the past three years,” said Morelli, “I’ve been back to Raylia once or twice to examine some of the technology there, I was on Suros a few months ago too, they were working on some new front-line armour for their marines and wanted some of my input. I’ve got a few new toys of my own too, maybe we could start another revolution so I can test them out?”

“One revolution is more than enough for this lifetime,” James laughed. While he craved excitement and adventure, war was not something he particularly wanted to experience again.

“I’ll keep it to the testing ranges for now,” Morelli chuckled, “it’s good to know that people are appreciating me for my skills rather than my looks these days. It’s so refreshing to finally be known as the technical genius rather than ‘that hot girl from Edassa’.”

James, Isha and Morelli made their way up the steps and towards the doors of the grand hall. After showing their invitations and being cleared to enter, only then did the scale of the inside of the building become clear. It was enormous, probably enough to hold four, maybe five thousand people and still have ample room for everyone to move about freely. Clearly that had been the intention of this party too as there were well over two thousand guests already inside. There were several bars offering up all manner of exotic looking drinks, tables all across the sides of the room boasting some interesting looking dishes, many of which had been imported from all around the alliance.

“Well have a good night anyway,” Morelli said to both James and Isha, “I’m off to find the rest of my delegation but I’ll try and find you around the place a bit later so we can all have a proper catch up.”

“Hopefully we will,” said James, “enjoy you’re night, we’ll catch you soon.”

Morelli was quick to disappear into the masses, several dozen pairs of eyes following her as she did so, leaving the two of them alone once more.

“Well she’s certainly perked up a bit since we last saw her,” Isha commented, “it’s nice to see the attitude is gone too, I was afraid she would relapse to her old ways after the war.”

“I think she was just misunderstood this whole time,” said James, “let’s be honest, we were all outcasts, rebels and troublemakers when we came together. Look at us now, alliance heroes and guests of honour at the biggest multi-race event since the founding of the new alliance. Come on, I want to see what they have on offer here tonight, I think we should check out the bars.”

James surveyed the many offerings on show, drinks from all over the alliance. He made a note to avoid a particularly nasty looking Tolian drink, the name for which, another guest informed him, translated to the word ‘knockout’. For now, he was happy to settle for something a bit lighter to start the evening off, ordering himself something all the way from Naisus, which was known for producing an excellent quality of alcoholic beverages.

“I have to admit, this local stuff isn’t bad,” Isha noted as she took a rather excessive sip for her glass, trying out some of the popular Churian wines.

“You and me both,” said a familiar voice from behind them. James spun around to see a familiar face approaching the two of them.

“James, I hoped I would run into you tonight,” said the imposing figure of Karlo Danero, the last surviving member of the famed Lorridan defence legion, “the old crew back together again for a night, it’s good to be back.”

“Good to see you again Karlo,” James said, shaking Danero’s hand, wincing slightly at the strength of his iron grip, “how have you been?”

“I’ve been Ok,” Danero replied, “honestly, I wasn’t sure how I would recover from everything that happened on Vulia but, after spending some time away from the military, things started to improve. I feel like my old self again now, I feel like I’m doing something good again too.”

“Glad to hear it,” said James, “so if you haven’t gone back to the military, what have you been doing? I thought the military was your life?”

“It still is, partly, I just wanted to stay off the front lines for a while,” Danero explained, “when I returned to Voronia, I appealed to our leaders to allow me to rebuild the Lorridan defence legion. They actually went one better, they funded a new academy in Lorridan to help train the very best young men and women we have. It’s an elite training centre that will bring through a new generation of soldier that will help defend the alliance all across the galaxy and I’m one of the lead trainers and the academy’s lead benefactor.”

He had certainly done well for himself in the past years. James had always worried that Danero would struggle to get over what he had been through, the revolution, his exile on Dakora, watching his entire unit being torn apart before him and the death of his close friend Valeri Castellan. It was a lot for one man to bear but Danero was as tough as nails, he had survived the worst of it and things had become a lot better for him.

“I see you’ve done fairly well for yourself too,” said Danero, “a captain in the Human fleet at such a young age, not many people gain such a position in such a short space of time.”

“Just lucky I guess,” James shrugged, “it’s not like I ever asked Malaya to whisk me away and make me the captain of the her ship and lead the revolution.”

“Well you certainly made the most of what happened to you,” said the other man who was stood at Danero’s side. James had not met this man before, he was young, early twenties at the oldest with jet black hair and a face that was scarily familiar to him. This must have been who Melina had mentioned before and she was right about his familiarity.

“Oh, I almost forgot,” Danero said suddenly, “James, let me introduce you to my godson, Julio Castellan.”

Castellan? This was the eldest son of James’s former crew member Valeri Castellan? It certainly explained why his face was so familiar, he was an actual younger version of his father. If he was half the man his father was, he would go on to become a great soldier in the Voronian military one day.

“It’s a pleasure to meet you,” said Julio, “Karlo has told me all about you and your time during the revolution. I hear it was an adventure unlike anything we’ve ever seen in the history of the alliance.”

“Well it was certainly an experience,” said James, “and you know you look just like your father. He was a brave man, it was a pleasure to serve alongside him during the revolution, he died a hero of the alliance.”

“I wouldn’t have expected any less from him,” said Julio, who was making no disguise of his pride at the identity of his father, “he was always highly regarded among our people. If I know him, he probably took a hundred of them with him when he went down.”

“Young Julio here is very much his father’s son,” said Danero, “his aptitude tests are in the top five percent at the academy and he is already in line to follow his father’s footsteps into the new Lorridan defence legion. He’s a very hardworking individual and I’m sure his father would be proud of what he is in line to achieve.”