Inherit the Stars by Tony Peak Page A

Maybe they could escape together. . . . Sar wouldn’t be the only one to make the albino woman a proposal.
    A gradual throb rose in her forehead.
    Eyes closed, her thoughts shifted to a world with green soil.
Steam geysers shot hundreds of feet into an orange sky. She stood on an observation deck, holding a stone staff. Dozens of Kith worked below, arranging rock columns, metal spires, and crystal geodes into a square structure.
    â€œHuh . . . ?” Strength left her legs for a second, and she bumped into the pod wall.
In her mind, the square structure resembled the tower on Vstrunn. Millions of colors stabbed into her eyes from the glare of crystal spires. . . .
    The mist ionizer shut off as the vision left her mind.
    Steadying herself against the pod’s transparent wall, Kivita glanced at the pouch on the counter. A yearning for Sar to tell her what it all meant, for him to hold her again, overcame the thin wall around her heart. How easy it would be to call for him. She slumped to her knees and fought back tears.
    â€œNo,” Kivita whispered. Strength welled in her heart. She set her jaw, wiped her eyes.
    â€œNot this time, Sar Redryll. I told you you’d found something out there in me. You should never have let me go.” She sniffed and exited the bathing pod.
    Kivita smirked as she studied her clean nudity and fluffed tresses in the mirrors. There was no Ascali fur on her, but her legs were still nice, and those boring workouts kept her stomach flat. Yeah, let Sar gawk at what he’d been missing.
    The smirk vanished as she examined the clothes he’d left her: a blue breechcloth, ply chaps, and a blue top that wouldn’t extend past her navel. The copper-meld brassiere, complete with Tejuit love chains to be tied behind the neck, made her cheeks burn anew.
    â€œDamn him,” Kivita said.
    At least she still had her polyboots.
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    Seul maintained a calm composure as Sar approached her with the flexi cables. “You’ll not require those. My superior will have already docked me from the Effectives List.”
    â€œYou’ll be freed once we’re planetside. I just want you to hear me out.”
    Seul doubted she could handle them both, and she couldn’t pilot the ship even if she defeated all three. They’d treated her well, considering the circumstances. Perhaps her Troopers would be alive if she’d not fired first. She hoped Kael was safe.
    â€œI am listening.” She tried to keep her tone neutral.
    â€œGood.” Sar looped the flexi around her wrists anyway. Cheseia kept the beam rifle aimed on her.
    â€œIs a human’s word as strong as an Aldaakian’s?” Seul asked. “Bring me no harm and release me after we disembark, and you’ve my word I won’t cause strife.”
    â€œI still want these on your wrists,” Sar replied. “Hold out your arms, close together.”
    Seul’s cryoports squeezed, but she did as he asked. As soon as possible, she’d find a way to rejoin her race. Excitement over the Vim signal still left her awed. Everything she’d dreamt about could happen, and now she was a prisoner? Not for long.
    After Sar finished trussing Seul’s wrists, Cheseiaspoke. “Truly, why have Shock Troopers tried to take the Juxj Star? If it is a datacore, you surely cannot read it.”
    Despite her revulsion regarding the Ascali’s hirsute body, Seul liked Cheseia’s voice. It reminded her of the flutes human refugees played in the hive ships around Tejuit Seven.
    â€œDatacores can be scanned by running electrical current through them, but little information is learned,” Seul replied. “We try to keep datacores from the hands of our enemies.”
    Sar’s eyes narrowed. “Never heard that before. Keep talking.”
    Seul’s cryoports tightened as she struggled with their searching stares.