Star Brigade: The Supremacy (SB3) (21 page)

Tyris’s beady dark-blue eyes conveyed shock. “That’s why it’s called ‘the Supremacy’s Ruin.’”

“Right!” Liliana was thrilled by how quickly Tyris caught on. “Smatterings of Ttaunz lived in the Libratta Systems and other far-flung colonies. But with the Supremacy destroyed, those colonies revolted and evicted every Ttaunz off their worlds. Back then, the Union was just the original Founder Races…” Lily gestured again, awaiting an answer.

“Kudobans, Voton, Rhomerans, earthborn humans and Galdorians,” Tyris said.

“Yes!” The doctor beamed. “They transported sixty million Ttaunz refugees to Faroor.”

“When only Farooqua lived back there?” Tyris added.

“Exactly!” Lily patted him on the shoulder proudly. Her Navarran accent grew thicker the more excited she got. “Back then, Farooqua had no issue with Ttaunz living on their vacant lands. But to help the Ttaunz thrive there, the Union created which trade route through the Herope System?”

“Orthambra,” Tyris answered succinctly.

“Mmhmm,” Liliana nodded. “And seeing how seamlessly the Union worked as a government, especially with a former adversary, other worlds popped up left and right to join.”

“I see.” Tyris rubbed his blocky chin.

“Glad ya do.” Liliana smiled, quite pleased with herself. “That answer your question, Commander?”

The Tanoeen stood and gave her two thumbs up. “Profusely.” Tyris had no visible mouth to smile with, but the gleam in his eyes more than sufficed. He had big shoes to fill, and Lily wanted to help as much as possible. That began with knowing the lay of the land, as Nwosu always preached.

According to her readings, Ttaunz culture from attire to architecture was stuck in the past as if the Supremacy still reigned. Unsurprisingly, the Frontier Wars were a sore topic on Faroor. But bygone grandeur was more palatable than the harsh reality of Union membership.
And the Ttaunz’s hatred of sharing Faroor with the Farooqua…

Across the bridge, Lily spied Khrome and V’Korram reviewing Faroor’s terrains on the TriTran. In the opposite corner near the cockpit, Marguliese looked impeccably long and lean standing before a floating holoscreen detailing several Ghebrekh attacks, the data flashing by obscenely fast.

“Aren’t you just full of smarts, Cortes?”

Lily turned toward the voice, startled. She didn’t know Khal was still on the bridge. He leaned comfortably against an unadorned wall, observing her with bemusement. Just like when she first saw him months ago, all his absurd beauty and allure nearly liquified Lily’s bowels. “If this Brigade thing doesn’t work out,” Khal continued, “you could give tours at history museums.”

Lily could taste mockery in his words and that rakish smirk. “My current gig’s just fine,” she answered stiffly.

“Then answer this.” Khal pushed off the wall toward her, every movement graceful yet swaggering. “Is Marguliese real?” he whispered.

Liliana blinked and stood up, adjusting her henley. She fought the urge to not gaze up the length of his trim physique…and salivate. “Excuse me?”

“She’s not what I expected from a Cybernarr.” Khal uttered “Cybernarr” so nonchalantly the doctor flinched away.

How could he—oh
.  Clearly, Sam had briefed him on Marguliese’s background. “What did you expect?” Lily asked slowly, recovering herself.

Khal closed the distance between them, standing nearly three inches taller. “Always imagined a calculating cyborg with cyber parts exposed, not a piping-hot alien fembot.”

Liliana eyed him hesitantly. It was obvious what he fished for here. “I doubt she’s interested, Khal.”

“Who said I was interested?” He blinked innocently.

“Didn’t have to.” Nearness made his allure almost stifling… Lily took a few steps back, hands on her hips. “At least not out loud.”

“Aren’t you adorable?” Khal laughed rather condescendingly, threading his fingers through dark windblown locks. “
All
the ladies like me.” He waggled a hand around and playfully poked Lily’s nose.

That made her giggle girlishly.
Why did I do that?
She glanced down to hide the rising blush in her cheeks.

As Lily looked up, Khal had already swaggered over to the Cybernarr with a sexy smile. “Hello, Marguliese. Glad to be on the same CT with you.”

“Second Lieutenant Al Abdullah,” the Cybernarr replied in emotionless, mechanized tones. She didn’t bother looking away from the screen. “I will reserve my affirmations until after this mission concludes.”

“Well enunciated, but needless. Usually, they call me Big Khal.”

“Do they?” Marguliese answered flatly, still not facing him.

“Sometimes,” Khal admitted, placing his right hand on Marguliese’s. Her golden face remained blank, but her eyes narrowed a fraction.

His audacity took Lily’s breath away.
Is he space-crazed?
And by V’Korram’s dubious glances, she wasn’t alone in her opinion.

“If you ever need friends on Star Brigade besides Captain Nwosu, I’m more tha—Owowowow!” Khal crumpled to one knee so fast Lily did a double take, and quickly saw why. Marguliese subtly trapped Khal’s pinkie between her thumb and pointer finger, bending it back disturbingly far.

The Cybernarr finally faced Khal, who recoiled under her chilling azure glare. “Remove your hand from mine,” she said, flat and frightening, “before I remove it
from
you.” As soon as Marguliese released his hand, the rookie wisely yanked it back.

Khal flexed his hand experimentally. Still, he leered after Marguliese as she marched off the bridge like a soldier heading into battle. “I do like ‘em feisty.”

Lily exchanged a sour look with V’Korram and Khrome after Khal had exited. “He calls himself ‘Big Khal’?” That threw cold water on whatever lusts she had felt earlier.

“He used the word ‘feisty,’” Khrome threw back, offended.

V’Korram replied with a brusque, blunt growl. “Already miss Sam.”

Me, too,
Lily concurred, but not aloud. Even when they agreed on matters, V’Korram still found reasons to bite her head off. Her eyes landed on the holoimage V’Korram and Khrome were now studying: Faroor with its rocky grey surface and large blue blotches of ocean swaddled in white billows. Sitting on the inky backdrop in close orbit was its moon Qos.

There was nothing extraordinary about the moon’s size or shape, which strongly resembled Old Earth’s Luna. Its radiance was another story: a strange and otherworldly lilac glow bled off the moon in wispy trails. There was a power there, palpable even through 3D holoprojection. Liliana continued to gaze, feeling a growing uneasiness that couldn’t be explained.

Qos, the alleged source of Ghuj’aega’s power.
A shudder ran through Lily, so intense that she hugged herself. The doctor turned her face away from the visual and fled from the bridge as fast as her long legs could carry her.

If only leading CT-2 was this fun
, Sam mused. The crackling fire she had conjured cast a pale blue glow over her audience’s mesmerized faces. She was juggling two large triangles of swirling azure flame over her open hands. Before that, she had unleashed a fiery orange bird as bright as daylight to soar around the classroom.

Sam dressed casually for her presentation in hip-hugging blue denims and a dark-green Star Brigade logoed tee, her buttery blonde hair pulled up in a high ponytail. The darkened classroom she stood in looked as if the Galactic Union itself had thrown up all over it. Union cartography maps and memberworld flags covered the walls, while 3D globes of individual memberworlds floated in the back of the classroom.

After she finished, lights flooded the classroom. Nineteen Korvenite youngsters sat cross-legged before her, awestruck. Their lovely Kudoban teacher stood in the back next to Jhori, a wiry Korvenite in his early twenties with a shaved head. The latter served as Sam’s helper and occasional Korvenite liaison for months now.

“[Questions?]” Sam asked in perfectly accented Korcei. She was learning the Korvenite dialect for Tharydane’s benefit, but this class provided a convenient practice forum. A dozen youngsters shot their hands up.

“Cephè?” Sam pointed at a doll-like girl, pale as snow, waving her arm with feverish determination.

Cephè straightened up self-importantly. “[Can you fly?]”

“[Oh yeah,]” Sam scoffed playfully, winning a gush of “Oooohs.” “[Wanna see?]”

The class exploded with thrilled anticipation. These ten-year-olds, all from internment camps, had learned about maximums today in their xenobiology class. Sam, possessing maximal abilities, was invited by their instructor to discuss them. To her delight, the kids were eating up her presentation like candy.

Sam’s main reason for visiting was to check on the Korvenite refugees from the Conuropolis sewers. They were rightfully scared, but her familiar face had gone a long way in calming their nerves. Jhori, her silent shadow, lurked in the background in case trouble emerged, which didn’t.

The children, however, were another big reason why Sam loved visiting Calliste’s Korvenite sanctuary.

The facility on Terra Sollus’s largest moon was originally conceived as a thinktank. That changed before Ari Bogosian’s resignation over six months ago. In one of his last acts as Union Chouncilor, he authorized this and four other covert sites around the Rhyne System to house the Korvenite refugees. Given the public blowback over the internment camps, this bill met almost zero resistance in the Bicameral. And compared to the internment camps’ revolting squalor, these facilities were palatial.

Sam visited Calliste once a week. Fighting for these Korvenites meant nothing if she didn’t know them. After several consistent visits, many Korvenites now welcomed her presence. Most were grateful for their liberation, and roamed freely outside their new homes. Some considered this “another internment camp.” Those Korvenites, particularly those formerly of Maelstrom’s retributionaries, were currently confined and in counseling with Kudoban volunteers. Sam called it what it was, “deprogramming.”

Korvenites were free to use their psionic abilities while in the parameters of their living communities or classrooms. But if they stepped outside a designated area, the facility security instantly inhibited their gifts.
A necessary evil until the Korvenites get their own planet.
Sam had no clue when that would happen.

After finishing with the Korvenite youngsters, she parted ways with Jhori and retreated to an elevated bridge overlooking a sprawl of settlements. She reclined against a handrail, gazing up at the facility’s lofty holographic array mimicking normal blue skies. But Terra Sollus was real enough. The giant azure and greenish-brown disk peaked halfway over Calliste’s horizon, dominating the sky. Its two other moons, higher up in the heavens, were also authentic. From this distance, Terra Minor and Owen’s Moon looked smaller than Sam’s fists.

If only Tharyn could be here.
But after the Maelstrom affair, the Korvenite wanted nothing to do with her own race. That weighed heavily on Sam, hoping Tharydane would reconsider in time.

“Mesmerizing sunrise, isn’t it?” said a male voice nearby.

Sam smiled. “Unless you know it’s fake.”

The voice laughed, closer now. “You’re far too young to be so cynical, Ms. D’Urso.”

Sam chuckled, turning and straightening up to face “Ari,” as in Aristotle Bogosian, former Chouncilor to the Galactic Union of Planetary Republics.

Gone was the suit-wearing, clean-cut Chouncilor from months ago. Now he wore casual slacks and button-down shirts with rolled-up sleeves. Ari’s curly black hair was longer and shaggier, sporting more streaks of grey, with a scruffy beard begging for a shave. He had even gained a small paunch, but wore it well.

Sam glanced past Ari, spying his Honor Guardsman toward the bridge’s far end. Every former Chouncilor got at least one for the rest of their lives.

Since his resignation, Bogosian had honored his promise to restore Korvenite freedoms, collaborating with the nonprofit Transplanetary League for Sentient Rights to find their new homeworld. Sam served as a special consultant whenever her schedule allowed. Despite Bogosian’s contributions to the Korvenites, he had yet to actually enter the Korvenite living areas. But the former Chouncilor did this for his own safety.

Ari approached and handed a tall mug to Sam. “I come bearing gifts.” The mug steamed with a foamy white beverage of sorts. One whiff and Sam brightened.

“Peppermint vanilla milk!” She snatched the mug from him. “Ari, you shouldn’t have!” She brought the cup just under her nose and inhaled the minty vapors. A big, dopey smile settled across her face. Sam drained the cup in two gulps. “Mmmmmmmm. Heaven in a cup.” She looked up at him. “So what do you need?”

Bogosian cut to the chase. “I have a meeting with the Bicameral’s Joint Appropriations Subcommittee on Planetary Development tomorrow afternoon. It’s about finding an uninhabited colony world within Union Space to which the Korvenites can be relocated.”

Sam barely kept from shouting for joy. They had wanted this meeting for months. “Well done, you.”

Ari regarded her warmly. “Wouldn’t have done it without you. Which is why you’ll be there.”

Sam gaped, not attempting to hide her shock. “Me?!”

“Yes.” Ari leisurely leaned back against the handrail next to Sam. “And given your know-how on this, it’s my right to shamelessly exploit you,” he continued. “I remember you inviting me to do so.”

Sam gave him a sultry, sidelong look. “Why, Mr. Chouncilor, I meant sexually.”

Ari gaped. His only reply came out in nervous sputtering.

Sam gave a wicked cackle. “
God
, your face right now,” she teased. “Alright, alright. When and where?”

Ari quickly recovered and smiled, his laugh lines crinkling in ways that Sam always found dreamy. “An aide will send more details.” He then added, “Going through some of your data, I’m still wondering how you acquired all that from
inside
those covert internment camps!”

Sam gave a smug nod. “We all have our specialties, Ari.”

Ari shook his head as he marveled at her. “Even now, Sam, you’re still the enigma.”