The Alliance - 5. The Great Escape

Aaron was woken five hours later by Captain Darren, the human’s hand gently rousing the tired elf.

“Your Majesty, you need to get up. The Council of Lords will be expecting you in an hour.”

Aaron groaned tiredly, sitting up. He was on the verge of asking if he had to meet with the council, but he knew he did.

“I brought you your clothes. Itumak explained you didn’t have any,” Darren said. “And we found the person responsible for the poison. Lady Tieran.”

Aaron was instantly awake.

“Are you sure?” he asked. “It wasn’t Lord Sarin?”

“No. She admitted to working alone. We have her in a cell right now. The kitchen staff knew nothing. Apparently, the one neko’s father is an expert at finding poisons in food. It’s why he was made your server. She found a way to make him sick and made arrangements for his son to take his place.”

“She never gave any indication she wanted me dead. What was her reason?”

“She said werewolves do not belong in politics.”

Aaron growled, rising from the bed. He began dressing quickly, thinking hard.

“She turned Lord Sarin against me and used him to publicly attack me? How did she do that?”

A moment later he added, “What did she know about him?”

“His wife is a werewolf. Tieran knew and threatened to expose her.”

“And Sarin is known for his anti werewolf beliefs. He’s married to a wolf?”

“The thought is she cheated on him but didn’t realize the elf she slept with was a wolf. I haven’t questioned him too closely on it.”

“Maybe we should,” Aaron said, clasping his cloak around his collar. “He may have changed his previous stance now that his wife is a werewolf. Or the fact that his wife cheated on him with a wolf might have made things worse.”

He stepped out of Mateio’s cabin, taking a moment to remember the ship’s layout.

“This way Your Majesty,” Darren said, leading Aaron through the ship.

Mateio stepped out of a cabin, rubbing his eyes.

“Is it time to talk to the council again?’ he yawned.

“Yes. If you wish you can stay here,” Aaron said.

“It was a rather unpleasant experience yesterday,” Mateio agreed. “If you’re sure, I would like to stay here. I can do some cleaning.”

He walked in front of them silently, nodding to Itumak as the group passed. The neko yawned, nodding back to the Faro.

“I’ll stay here, run interference on anyone looking to cause mayhem,” Itumak said to Darren.

“Good idea. I’ll send someone to relieve you as soon as I return to the barracks,” Darren promised.

“Feel free to return for lunch Lord Aaron,” Mateio offered as he lowered the ramp.

“Thank you Mateio. I think I will,” Aaron smiled.

“You have an interesting relationship with your king,” Mateio said as they watched Aaron and Darren walk into the forest.

“He and I are old friends,” Itumak smiled fondly. “I’m kind of the reason he is a werewolf. I’m honestly surprised he didn’t ditch me when he turned. But he’s a good guy.”

“And the captain of the guard came to wake him up. Isn’t that a little strange?”

“Sure it is,” Itumak shrugged. “But Captain Darren found Aaron after his first change. I think he has a soft spot for Aaron. Looks after him like a surrogate father.”

“I don’t really understand the difference between a father and… mother,” Mateio said.

“Oh… uh… It’s complicated sometimes, but generally, a mother gives birth to a child and a father… well…” Itumak trailed off uncomfortably.

“Oh, a mother is like a mara? But without being a segal… It’s because you have two genders, right?”

“Well some would argue that point,” Itumak said. “There are multiple genders, but a lot of people seem to think only two exist. It’s something of a political thing. I don’t really like to get into it. If someone says they’re neither male nor female, good for them.”

Mateio scratched his head.

“Your world is rather confusing,” he muttered.

“Yeah, you seem a little confusing to me too,” Itumak shrugged. “Still, you have a nice ship.”

Mateio smiled.

“Would you like some breakfast? I could use something to wake me up right now.”

“Sure,” Itumak smiled.

“I’m going to check the engines for a minute, then I’ll get the food going.”

The Faro turned right past his car and unlocked a door that hissed open quickly. He entered the cockpit of the ship, shutting the door behind him.

The far wall of the cockpit was a giant bubble-like window, as solid as the metal that made up the rest of the ship. Mateio could see in nearly every direction except directly behind the ship. He often enjoyed coming into this room when he was orbiting a planet.

Sitting in the pilot’s seat, Mateio turned the engines of the ship on, their quiet purr settling through his body. Various screens and systems came to life through the vessel, the ship’s AI reporting the status of the major systems.

“Engines working normally. Radar online. Probes online. Vehicle bay online. Radar reports the presence of ten vessels leaving cloak in orbit. Shall I engage ship cloak?”

Mateio stood up in horror. Cloaked ships in orbit? No Alliance vessels would enter the system without a cause, and they certainly wouldn’t be here in force.

“Engage cloak,” he agreed, rushing back out of the cockpit. “Prepare ship for takeoff. How much fuel is in the tank?”

Itumak stared at the fox, flinching as Reinard replied, “One point five weeks of fuel remain at cruising speed. Three point eight weeks of fuel remain at light speed.”

“What’s going on?” Itumak demanded.

“The Empire,” Mateio said quickly. “Get Lord Aaron and his daughter and get them to the ship now!”

Frowning, Itumak hurried for the ramp, leaving Mateio to finish his preparations.

Aaron took a deep breath, nodding toward the guards in front of the door.

“I will remain here in case you need me Your Majesty,” Darren promised.

“No, you’ve done enough. Go rest up,” Aaron smiled wanly.

“As you wish,” Darren nodded.

He spun on his heel and began walking down the hall.

Aaron stepped into the Council chambers, the murmured conversations stopping as he entered the room. He noted the absence of Lady Tieran, Lord Sarin looking relaxed for the first time in a few months. Also missing was Adara and Aaron frowned. She would need to learn punctuality. Council meetings came before any relationships.

“Good morning,” he said, taking his seat. “I trust we all thought long and hard about our situation. Let’s get down to business.”

Lord Sarin stood up suddenly, surprising Aaron. The elf tensed slightly, prepared for another round of verbal sparring.

“Your Majesty, I would like to apologise for my behaviour yesterday. I was out of line. You have led us well to this point; there is no reason to believe you will not continue to protect us.”

The man sat, falling silent.

“Thank you, Lord Sarin. Now, we must decide what to do about Mateio. I do not personally believe in locking up anyone without reason.”

“He could bring destruction upon us,” Sarin said.

“But he said his Alliance doesn’t wish to conquer us,” an elf mentioned. “I do not believe-”

The doors to the room slammed open, Itumak rushing inside. Aaron stood up, glaring at the neko.

“Itumak, what the hell-”

“We must go Aaron. I just sent Darren to find Adara. We need to get to Mateio.”

The elf’s glare turned into a worried frown.

“What happened? Is he okay? Did the assassin wake up?!”

“He said the empire was here.”

Aaron paled, his eyes staring at the neko.

“My lords and ladies, I suggest you leave quickly,” he said calmly. “Go into hiding. You cannot fight what is coming.”

Itumak grabbed the elf’s hand, pulling him toward the door.

“Your Majesty?”

“Flee to the countryside!” Aaron called as he was hurried out of the room.

The guards at the door surrounded Aaron, the group following Itumak through the halls. Thunder erupted overhead, a section of the ceiling collapsing right behind Aaron. They hurried on, desperate to make it outside before the aliens landed.

A wall blew inward to their right, a winged beast stalking through the hole. Green scales covered its body, a sheet of metal over its torso. It had to be one of the Daknar Mateio had spoken of.

Bellowing a challenge, the Daknar brandished a gun at them, a lopsided grin revealing its teeth. The guards on either side of Aaron charged at the creature. With two bright flashes from its weapon, the creature ended their lives.

Itumak pushed Aaron behind himself, shielding his king with his body.

“Shift and run,” he breathed. “Go now. I’ll hold it off.”

The beast raised its gun again and several pops went off behind it. Howling in rage, the Daknar spun around, revealing a group of elves and nekos taking cover outside the palace. A gun fired, the bullet embedding itself in the Daknar’s armour and the beast released another shot from its weapon.

“Go!” Itumak hissed.

Aaron leapt forward, his body snapping as he shifted. As a wolf, he tackled the reptile, teeth ripping through its throat. He spat out the mouthful of gore as Itumak shoved him. Together the two raced away from the grisly scene, Itumak taking his white wolf form to keep up with his king.

They loped through the back entrance of the palace as a strange ship flew above. Red bolts of plasma shot toward them, Itumak knocking Aaron aside before death could claim him. The white wolf yelped as the plasma hit the ground beside him. Standing, he growled at Aaron, limping quickly toward the trees.

Aaron followed Itumak closely, whining a question at the wolf. Itumak barked a response, the wolves continuing their painful journey.

They reached the clearing, the ship shimmering into view as the ramp descended.

“Get inside! Hurry!” Mateio yelled.

Aaron sprinted up the ramp, Itumak following him closely.

“Adara! Where’s Adara?!”

Aaron shifted, grabbing Itumak.

“Darren is looking for her,” he said, turning the wolf.

Itumak’s left shoulder was severely burnt, tears of pain in his eyes.

“I don’t know how long I can hold the ship here,” Mateio snapped.

“Help Itumak, he’s wounded,” Aaron demanded, turning back to the ramp.

Darren’s figure appeared through the trees, a weapon in his hands. Adara followed him closely, an elf beside her. It had to be Arisa, and Aaron found himself grateful for the elf that was helping his daughter.

“Hurry!” he called urgently as the sounds of another ship grew above them.

Darren suddenly shoved the two girls to the side, a flash of red engulfing him. A tree cracked as the plasma cut through it, tumbling toward the girls.

“NO!” Aaron screamed, leaping out of the ship.

Adara cried out as the tree fell across her legs. The elf knelt beside her, examining her legs.

“Your Majesty?!”

“Father?”

Aaron slid to a halt beside them, barely taking in the blackened hole where Darren had met his end. One tragedy at a time.

“Adara, can you move?”

The neko shook her head, tears streaming down her face.

“Your Majesty, you need to go,” Arisa said sharply.

“Do not tell me to abandon my child!” Aaron snapped.

“Your Majesty, if you stay here, there is no hope for our planet. I don’t know what’s going on but I know if you don’t get in that spaceship we are all fucked. I will take care of Adara. I swear it on my life.”

Aaron looked Arisa in the eye, refusing to accept it. Adara needed to get out from under the tree. Mateio had ways to heal her. He grabbed the tree, Adara screaming as the trunk rolled across her legs.

“Your Majesty! Please!” Arisa yelled at him.

He released the tree. There was no way he could move it.

“Go Father. I’ll be okay,” Adara cried. “I’ll keep our home safe. Go find someone to help us.”

Aaron trembled as he reached for her.

“I’ll come back,” he whispered. “I swear I will be back for you.”

“Lord Aaron! We need to go now!” Mateio yelled.

Standing, Aaron turned away, sprinting back to the ship. He turned as he reached the top of the ramp, staring at his daughter until the ship’s door cut off his view of her.

“Reinard, energise the zero-gravity pods,” Mateio ordered. “Lord Aaron, my pod still holds the assassin. What should we do with her?”

“Zero-gravity pods energised,” the ship’s AI said.

“Where is Itumak?”

“In the health bay. I can’t put him in the pod to heal until we do something with the assassin. If we don’t want to take her with us we need to let her out now, but there is a good chance she will bleed to death on her own.”

“She tried to kill you. Her survival is of no concern to me,” Aaron said quietly. “Do what you will.”

“Her blood will be on your hands, Lord Aaron. I cannot carry her myself,” Mateio warned.

He was shocked at the callous way the elf was handling the assassin’s survival. But then, he had just left his daughter on a planet being invaded by aliens.

“I don’t care. Just heal Itumak!” Aaron snapped. “I can’t… I can’t lose him too.”

Mateio nodded. He couldn’t deal with this right now. The assassin would stay in the pod until they escaped the planet. After that, he would deal with her.

“Help him as much as you can. I need to get through the blockade around the planet,” he said, hurrying to the cockpit. “Reinard, set a course for Grathur Port.”

He slid into the seat, the forest rising around him. There was no way he could fight off an invasion on his own. His ship only had a gun for defence and a mining laser for emergency repairs. It was time for his ship to do what it did best. Vanish.

“Set up cloak to block radar. All lights off.”

The ship darkened as the lights were turned off remotely. Light still poured in from the sun but that would vanish when they left the planet’s atmosphere. Mateio prayed to Golaski that none of his passengers was afraid of the dark.

The cloaking wasn’t one of the original features of the ship. Mateio had built the addition himself to guard against discovery by any systems with an advanced civilization. He knew the cloak would work against the Imperial ships; he had used it once before, in a system not too distant from here. But that was against a single scout. The Faro wasn’t certain it would work here. But if he didn’t take the risk, he’d be dead anyway.

“Golaski, preserve us to wander safely through your creation,” he breathed quietly, before pushing up the thrusters.

The engines whined quietly as the ship rose. It tilted slightly, Mateio aiming the nose up in a gentle slope. It would take a while to escape the atmosphere at this angle but he wouldn’t have to worry about Aaron getting injured.

Trees sped past them, branches slapping against the hull of the ship as the vessel rose. Mateio flinched as a bullet hit the glass under him. A platoon of nekos was throwing their weapons at him, mistaking him for an Imperial ship. He didn’t blame them, and he respected their courage. But there was no way they could reasonably fight the ships being sent against them.

Veering away from the soldiers, Mateio increased his angle slightly. It would take another ten minutes, but he was going to escape this world.

Aaron gripped the doorway of the medical bay as the ship tilted. He kept a hand on Itumak’s back, helping the wolf keep his balance.

Tears flowed freely from his eyes. Adara was injured and trapped on the planet, Darren killed in the blink of an eye. His life had been ruined when Mateio showed up. But he couldn’t blame this on the Faro. Mateio had nothing to do with the aliens invading his world, and Aaron would be dead if it wasn’t for the Faro.

But his grief was great, and all the elf could do was attempt to comfort Itumak in his pain, even as he suffered through his own.

His body felt light suddenly, the lessened gravity around him making itself known. For the first time he fully realised what was happening. He was leaving the planet. He was leaving the only home he had ever known. And he was leaving it in the hands of a barbaric invader. There was no way of knowing if he would return. If he did, the planet would certainly not be the same one he left behind.

Gravity returned in full force, planting Aaron’s feet solidly on the ground. The room was growing dark and Aaron found himself shutting his eyes. Was he dying? Did Darren lose his life for nothing? He didn’t feel like he was dying; his body was intact even if his heart was in pieces. Maybe you could actually die of a broken heart.

The ship stopped moving, darkness covering everything. Aaron couldn’t even see Itumak inches in front of him, though he could still hear his heavy breathing, and the occasional whimper escaping the werewolf.

“You’re going to be okay,” he whispered, because it was true.

It had to be true. Aaron would not accept any other possibility. They’d be okay. They would survive and find help among the stars. They would return and he would take his planet back.

Mateio spotted an Imperial battlecruiser sitting over the planet, tiny next to the blue and green orb. Miniature specks swarmed around the vessel, each a troopship or a ship for ground support. He knew none would have the technology required to break through his cloak. The biggest threat to their survival right now was that battlecruiser.

It was a heavy ship to bring to an invasion of a primitive world, but the Empire was not known for taking chances. He calculated the forces arrayed against the planet as ten cruisers, each carrying twenty transports and forty fighters that could be used against the ground. Maybe five thousand Daknar could fit in each cruiser, maybe more if the Empire was using a different species alongside the reptiles. Fifty thousand troops to conquer the planet. More would be brought in to subdue any dissidents after the invasion was over.

As he watched, the cruiser shot out a blue beam, a burst of light lasting a full second. Mateio said a silent prayer for the people on the other end of the beam, even as he turned the ship away from the imposing sight.

Picking up the speed, he brought the ship to half the speed of light. Any faster and his cloak would fail.

“Grathur Port set as destination. Should I initiate the jump?”

“No.”

No, initiating a jump right now would bring the entire might of that cruiser down on them. He would wait another hour before jumping. By that point, they shouldn’t be able to catch up to his ship. If he was caught on this side of the portal, he could move to light speed and deal with the warped time that came from nearing the speed of light in this universe. The other ships would have to match his speed and he would keep his lead. If he jumped, there was a chance one of his pursuers would be faster than his vessel, and everyone on board would die.

Mateio let out a shaky sigh. He had seen the human get obliterated by that fighter. Something like that stuck with you no matter how you tried to shake it.

“Blue fox guide us in these times,” he murmured.

Golaski couldn’t hear him, he knew. Even the creator of the universe had admitted he had faults. But it made Mateio feel better, pushing a little of his problems on a more powerful being.

“Reinard, turn the lights in the med bay on low.”

It wouldn’t cause a problem for them. The med bay contained no windows for the light to shine through.

“Med pod is finished healing.”

Mateio frowned. That was much sooner than he anticipated. She had barely been in there for eight hours. There wasn’t much he could do about that though. The pod would keep her asleep until he was ready to deal with her.

“Radar shows twenty ships portalling into the system.”

Mateio groaned. He couldn’t see where the new ships were without light, and he couldn’t turn on the light until he was away from the Imperial ships.

Unless…

“Reinard, set up the portal drive.”

The ship whined loudly as it responded to his command. It was dangerous to use the AI for a jump, but there wasn’t anything he could do about that. If he could get the drive up in the next two minutes, his exit could appear as a late newcomer.

“Cloak has failed.”

“FUCK!”

His hand shot forward, blindly increasing the ship’s speed. The Imperial ships knew he was here now, there was no need for stealth. He had to hope they’d give him the time he needed to jump.

“Turn all lights on.”

Light flooded the cockpit, all secrecy lost. The radar lit up, revealing the incoming ships. They were behind him already, jumping in close to the planet. Maybe he’d be lucky and the cruisers would mistake him for one of the new ships.

The ship heated slowly as the drive powered up. Mateio was careful not to touch the walls.

His eyes widened. The assassin was in the med pod. If he jumped, she’d be cooked alive.

“Shit!”

He leapt up, sprinting toward the med bay. Rushing past Aaron and Itumak, the Faro opened the pod.

The woman sat up with a gasp, looking around wildly. She reached for a weapon but found none.

“Aaron, explain the situation to her. I need to jump,” Mateio said urgently, rushing back out of the room.

“Portal drive ready to engage.”

Throwing himself into the pilot’s chair, Mateio increased the speed as far as he could before engaging the drive.

A hole opened in front of the ship, the vessel entering it an instant later. As soon as the ship passed through, the portal closed.