Chapter 5

He stood in completely different passageway, the floor, the walls and the air itself felt alien. The unsettling environment was in the air and Lucian had to proceed further, even though his own brain told him constantly to turn and run. This was the enemy ship, the ship where those thugs came from. The ship behind his back was vivid and friendly. While this ship was strangely quiet and had an ominous air as soon as he touched its walls he pulled back trying to calm down. Alien in nature the feelings he got while touching the surface made him uneasy. Welcoming, acceptance and general happiness. He was scared for a moment as Lucian’s feeling kept telling him everything was going to be alright.

He shook his head, weirded out by his aerated emotions. Something was really strange but in reality he wanted to get to his sister as fast as possible.

The walls of the ship felt light and weak. Somehow he knew that it was sturdy enough to hold everything in place even in vastness of space. He managed to strum his fingers over few times relishing in the new sensations. Both ships felt as they belong together. Sounds of people fighting behind him brought him back and he remembered why he was here.

He moved with newfound purpose and went into the alien ship. As the door silently opened, he went through them, once on the other side he stood for few seconds trying to hear anything that would tell where to go or what to do; behind him he could hear the closing, as he moved his feet he found that the hallways were strangely vivid, not believing how vast a contrast between the ship and images that he saw during his surveillance. He was expecting to see a darker environment that accommodated that amount of moral corruption.

There was a light few feet above his head that illuminated the hallway that he was walking on, making his journey relatively calm and peaceful. He managed to stroke the walls few times and again his emotions erupted.

Holding his fingers on an outside wall his head started buzzing with pictures. Children playing, walking, laughing.

Couples enjoying the warm coziness of its confines while doing various activities. Its crew took great care in days past, which made it proud to be close to them and fly them everywhere.

The images exploded again and he as he felt proud, happy and delighted to have these people it was very fast replaced by grief, sadness and anger. First officer, the current captain killed everyone and took the command away from her captain. The ship was sad. Lonely as they used her to kill countless living organisms. She was angry and felt powerless whenever they sold, used and killed their captives. He had tears in his eyes as he was flooded with horrific imagery.

His sister was next and what the man did to her, he saw every excruciating second that his sibling went through. Kneeling down he tried not to scream and vail.

“She is ok.”

He heard himself speaking. But he was adamant to take out this man that took his sisters innocence. He knew, he figured that the very ship was speaking to him, as it showed him where the man was, on a chair a precise path leading to him was marked in Lucian’s head and he wanted to be right beside him in the least amount of time.

Running through the corridors he was happy that there were no elevators on this ship as he was able to appear in the command center of the ship in less than 2 minutes. Lucian stood near the unconscious man, the hate was flowing out from him, easily imagining the man’s brains on his fists, hands clenched he was preparing to pound his head into a bloody pulp. But the door that were leading towards his lost sibling called out to him, as if ship itself was guiding Lucian to where he needed to be, so he moved to them, they were locked. No matter how hard he tried the doors would not open. But as he was going to search through the captain’s clothes he heard a swish of the doors, relieved and concerned at the same time somehow, someway, someone on this ship still had a heart.

Inside the room the light was dimmed, a vast contrast against the pure picture that he managed to see from the Pad that he was working with, a woman on the floor flinched and started to hide. Standing at the doorway a bundle of emotions ran through him as he watched this woman try to hide from his stare.

Sliding toward his sister she hid her face, “My lovely Lin. I am here. Your big brother is finally here.” he used her pet name that she often hated.

She could not move her face muscles as the wounds were still hurting her, but still she openly sobbed and lunged to her brother’s chest. Clawing at his back, she wanted him to hold her tighter and tighter. As her heart ached for the things she went through, her hero was here, holding her and kissing her face. She felt his tears wash her face. She was elated. Happy. Hurt and saddened all at the same time. Bundle of emotions went through her mind as she sat on his knees and basked in his strong and protective arms.

“Everyone was looking for you.” She started.

“But ... We...” Her tears would not let her continue.

“Shhh. It is ok my little sister. We are together.” He managed to ease her fears.

“We are going to talk about it later for now relax.” Lucian said.

She looked at him, “Where is he?” Simple question, venom dripping from each word.

He pointed his thumb behind him and said, “Strapped to a chair, I made them all faint.”

Abruptly standing up she grabbed a heavy object from the floor and wobbled into the light. Lucian did not have the heart to stop her, he couldn’t, so he walked right behind watching her every move, just like a guardian angel he would do anything to keep her safe. She walked stumbling few times on her way to the slaver’s chair, he wanted to help her walk but Lucian felt his sister needed this therapy.

Finally stopping near captain’s chair she waited, waited and waited. Staring intently at his unconscious body. As if praying, gathering all of her strength to do what needed to be done. Her hands were shaking and she wanted to murder this inhuman being. Lifting the heavy object above her head Lucian prepared for the eventual deed, but she just stood there doubt painted across her face. Slowly dropping to her knees she started to sob.

Tears slowly started to drip, “I can’t do it brother.” She said.

Starting to shake and slowly lowering the heavy object in her arms, through her tears she spoke, “I’m afraid of becoming a monster if I do it.”

While she was busy crying, before Lucian could even react a laugh caught his attention, “A whore on her knees? Just the way I like it.”

Locking her eyes with the captain on the chair she started to speak, but before she could say something his head wend back and forth and blood started seeping from his nose. A dent appeared on his face as he started to cry out in pain. “What the hell.”

Adjusting his blurry eyesight he managed to see a silhouette right beside him, spending few moments trying to figure out what it was he was finally able to see a man standing right beside him and had to fight his wave of panic as Lucian started to smash away on his head, the rage Lucian was felling towards the sneering man was not something that he could easily stop. Man was trapped by his own doing, as the protective seatbelt was still around his torso and legs, locking him in place for the barrage of hits that this man could not stop.

He began to wail and cry through his broken face, “Please ... stop ... Enough.”

As blood seeped towards his windpipe, he started to violently cough unable to breathe and speak as he felt his life was slowly slipping away.

Captain Bonez had an easy life. After ‘annexing’ this ship from his own captain everything just fell to its place. But as this big man was mercilessly pounding away he felt contempt, at his crew, at his masters that wanted more and more money for what he thought was already his, they wanted a cut for every slave, whore and loot he sold. He blamed everyone.

Damn them were his final thoughts as he felt his attacker move away.

For one Lucian felt hands on his shoulders that grabbed him and pull away. For a second he thought he was getting attacked, but he felt the hands were being loving and careful not to hurt him too badly. Lucian calmed down, his eyes adjusted finally at the grim sight of what he had done. The man that was in the chair no longer had human features, as his face was caved in. furthermore Lucian found it even more striking that his hands were the ones that made the horrific damage. Captain of this ship managed to wail, he slurred few words but otherwise no one could understand, to the extent that Lucian felt pity for what he had done. But one look at his sister removed any pity he had for the man.

Turning back he saw Liza and Ericha with few other men. He felt to his knees and draped his sister in his protective arms, cooing and shushing her tears away. The man on the chair was led away sobbing and crying.

He pulled back and kissed her again on the forehead, turning towards his two lovers he spoke, “This wonderful woman in my arms is my baby sister Lindsay Deca. She likes the name Lin.” That got him a punch on the shoulder from his sister.

Both women were surprised and pleasantly relived, former confused stares were abruptly replaced by kind and soothing looks, stroking his sisters back he pointed at each woman and introduced them, “ Baby sister I want you to meet my wives, Liza and Captain Ericha Rrang.”

She looked aghast and stared at Lucian and at two women, “Lucian I hope you aren’t lying to me. Both of these gorgeous women can’t be your lovers.”

For once both Ericha and Liza blushed feverishly, Ericha a dark shade of pink while the pink color of Liza went even darker. Liza looked even more exotic to Lucian at that moment and he was happy that he got to meet her in the first place.

Again Lucian was glad he could tell his best friend everything as he pointed to his left hand wrist and said, “See this means Liza, Ericha and me are all connected.”

Lindsey for one felt like she was in a bad dream. “Lin, I know you went through a lot but now everything is, will be ok.”

Both women behind him nodded and while Lindsey was still on her brother’s lap she could see how much they adored him, which in turn eased her fears. Ericha or Liza, the pink beauty, looked in her direction and started to smile further easing her into security. She was finally safe.

While they were busy talking, the men and women took care of the bloody pulp of the man that shook and convulsed, anger and revulsion on the men’s faces as they dragged him away. The men that were in the chairs started to wake while they were doing this and with fear watched the proceedings.

Lucian felt someone behind him, and felt a firm pair of naked breasts squish at his back, turning in surprise he saw a woman in trance staring at his face saying in breathless whisper, “Help me, please.”

She cried out in pain and Lucian draped another arm to embrace this lost and beaten woman. Men with packs on their backs came and started to examine both the woman and his sister while they were with him, in seconds they injected the woman with something, while his sister got a nod from one of the men.

The woman visibly improved her condition several moments after her injection and in seconds she was as good as new, still naked, but no longer having that drunk stare.

“There are slaves in cargo bay, I think they need help as well.” Lucian told the men and they smiled.

“We know. Captain Al’Jafar and M.E. Luca will come to speak with you.” One of the men said and left.

Lucian felt deep respect to these people. They healed and nurtured people that were on verge of death and they asked nothing in return. Smiling he hugged his sister and projected love through his body and actions.

Warlord was busy pacing back and forth while the reports came, one after the other said the same thing. Every bit of his fleet was wiped out clean.

He screamed, at the screen, to no one really, while the crew winced and tried to focus on their tasks. Tusks were heaving with his saliva and foam was forming on the corner of his mouth. Who could annihilate an entire squadron of Scadz? To top it off the section that Gezz was leading was in charge of sector 25; retaking that portion of space was crucial for their plans of Galactic conquest. His masters will not be happy.

The War Master will not be pleased. He was expecting heads to roll of the Monarchy’s steps, but he was intent of knowing who was to blame for this momentous blunder.

“Find anything?!” He was brusque with his crew and his tusks were heavy with grief. Still painted in black for his loss.

Gezz was his son. The fact that he will be remembered by the failure that massive was something that he could not live with, staining his offspring’s place in the halls of Tho’Van. His place would forever be vacant. Replaced by a mural of his dishonored achievement.

One man came near and offered a salute. With a dark gaze Warlord watched his every move, now the time was crucial as the crew would seek to depose him as captain and leader. “Master we found something. We need you to see this.”

Relaxing he followed the man back to his space and watched the prepared replay. Dozens of ships wiped in an instant. “We believe someone destroyed a star and the resulting explosion wiped everything.”

Display showed his exact words in a miniature display of fireworks, neatly displaying all of the ships that were present at the moment of the explosion. A massive fleet disappeared in matter of seconds. Nothing was left but their own memories and conversations that they spoke previously with their home. Everyone wanted answers.

His two white and black tusks were centering his own face that told many stories of past battles. Heavy, oval shaped heads donned their massive bodies; some called them Tu’Vk or Fanged Ones. Zuu’ was their War Master.

Their race was opportunistic, for sure, but they prided themselves in surviving against all odds. Minor race of warriors. Some of the major races called them scavengers, some used derogatory names to provoke their violent reactions. Some were giving them the honor that they deserved.

For one Zuu’ did not care. He and his tribe of people would work in the mines while the rest collected the needed materials for their fleets. But none of that mattered as they were fighters. For the right price they would fight for anyone. The fleet that was destroyed was financed by everyone’s hard work. A sad epilogue to their race in galactic war.

Zuu’ sat on his throne, now looking less and less majestic. Everything was slowly unraveling as he was preparing to call back home and set everything right. He was prepared to die for his son’s honor.

Another transport full of slaves arrived at his site where he directed them toward their posts and once Zinu examined them all, he was ready to give a detailed report back to his Illustrious Empress. He wanted to sit still, but while he found a minor race of primitive species ripe for picking, he was all too eager to add another achievement on his belt. There were too many Grand Chancellors and every one of them went to war with each other for tiniest power plays. And this one was important as it meant future supplies of ketracyil were secured.

Even thought there were tens of worlds, with hundreds of billions of his people it was unthinkable to let one of the Chosen ones to do the dirty work of mining the precious ore. A dirty, dangerous task that was usually left to the servitor races of Lakerti. The Chosen Ones.

Finally done with his report The Empress surely will be delighted by this new achievement. A world filled with billions upon of billions of slaves. And they found their work ethic to be pretty good when coaxed into it, their life expectancy was even higher than normal servitor races and they could be reproduced. Even though the normal incubation periods were way too long for them to even think about starting a colony of breeders. But three years of research led him to believe that it could be done.

Shutting off a vid feed that showed a man screaming in pain while various procedures were implemented on him, the colony was wiped clean after the slaves escaped. His only mistake. Almost lost him the position of Grand Chancellor of War.

Finally he checked for mistakes, ran a type 1 encryption and sent the message. Hopping that this would ease Her anger.

Bursting into the room, without even knocking, his personal adjutant ran with everything he had, Zinu could see he was flushed and Zinu noticed that he was extremely worried. Once his adjutant was in front of his desk he saluted and said, “Grand Chancellor, You need to see this.”

Zinu looked at the unusually clumsy man while he hands shook as he tried to adjust what he was holding. After moments of trying he placed a screen panel in front of him and entered a decryption protocol. Lifting his eyebrows, Zinu never once noticed the man doing this at this speed. Fumbling few times to enter it, his skin started to take a deeper color, usually for his species it would mean great stress.

Once everything was set he gently pulled back, still on his face a worried face, the sound played and he started talking, “Our long range probe picked something few days back. We sent it to examine the source of our readings ... We found something, sir.”

A long pause as the video did nothing to explain the situation to Zinu, he wanted to tell the man to speak up, but then something caught in the corner of his eyes. The image made him shake in his chair. The image flickered for few moments and then went black. Soon he looked at his adjutant and he nodded.

Zinu had a map in his hands. A screen that was black, but using his dexterous fingers he made the screen dance and form another image. The screen showed the same picture from the same perspective. This was not something good.

“How correct is this information?” Zinu asked.

Still beside him, Zinu could hear the adjutant answer, “Very sir.”

“How many were there?” He was asking while the image kept replaying over and over.

“Over 50 ships Sir. There are detailed reports on what was destroyed but...” As his adjutant started explaining a sound on his board gave them a start.

Someone was calling him on his direct line, Zinu immediately answered, “Yes.”

“War Master. I’ve failed you.” The man on the other side of the call saluted and bowed at the same time.

Looking at the man with contempt he was tempted to drop the call, “Speak Zuu’. What happened?”

“I’ve sent a detailed report. Short version, we’ve managed to enter Sector 25 unnoticed. But something destroyed our fleet.” He stated simply.

Zinu abruptly stood up startling his assistant, “HOW?!”

He managed to collect himself noticing that it was unbecoming of a Grand Chancellor to show emotion like this, “What could destroy an entire fleet?”

“They destroyed a star. That annihilated our fleet.” Zuu’ just shrugged his shoulders.

“What could destroy a sun?” Zinu and his assistant looked aghast.

The man’s tusks were painted black, a sign that he was mourning someone. Zinu looked at his personal commander of his fleets. There were very few Servitor races like Tu’Vk that understood the way of war, and he wanted them at the front lines. Finally calming down, knowing that this man on the other side of the screen was not working against him, he spoke, “Tell me what you know.”

Zuu’ for one did not wait and started explaining what his men found out about their horrible losses. Finally when he was done Zinu could see why the man had painted his tusks, losing his son and his entire war arsenal was not a daily occurrence.

“Wat Master.” The man’s voice was full of emotion.

Zinu looked beyond the screen and stared at a father who sat pleading with his eyes, “My son, will I be able to redeem his honor?”

Zinu breathed in and simply said, “No.”

Turning he left the commander on his chair silent tears dripping from his face.

Zinu ended the call, sending new orders to his commander and expecting him to carry them out. He had more pressing matters to attend. A new threat was looming over their heads.

“So you managed to breach their AND our internal systems?” Angry Al’Jafar was almost livid when he heard the report from Lucian’s own mouth.

“Yes, sir.” Lucian simply said.

Glaring at Lucian, Al’Jafar spat, “And what possessed you to do that?”

“I knew I could breach them with ease, it was not my first time you know.” Lucian shrugged his shoulders.

“BULLSHIT. Do you know what kind of idiocy you are saying?” A man in his 20’s stood up.

There were several people on this ‘debriefing’ as they called it. They kept asking him silly questions over and over to the point of him bending over and gripping his temple with his left hand. Throbbing headache was looming and first signs began to manifest. He tried pinching his nose but to no avail. The dumbness of the situation was way too much.

“Let me show you then.” Lucian offered standing up and taking Captain Al’Jafar’s Pad from the table.

Lucian’s fingers danced across the liberated Pad and in moments the scenario from Pretoria was repeated. Somewhat. The ship was still moored with another, and he could not simply pull into warp speed, even he knew the consequences behind such action.

No for a moment the lights dimmed, the comms on the God of War were jammed and he played with the water system. Voices over the coms before they were cut off told of a massive breach of their on board system and loss of all controls.

Al’Jafar with every member of his senior staff looked aghast at the man’s apparent magical skills of his protected Pad. The man took charge of it as it did not have 10 layer Cyber protection. Finest minds in Star Republic built it, 10 years of work down the drain in just a span of few seconds.

“What are you thinking when you do that?” Al’Jafar asked.

Lucian looked at the man and shrugged his shoulders, “I do not know. First time I did this I was searching for a game to pass my time. I just found the directory...”

“Wait. A game? You expect us to believe that you were fishing for a game.” Another man asked with a sneer.

“I do not expect you to believe anything. I’m just saying what I did at that time.” Lucian explained.

There was a mute silence everyone was staring at Lucian, they were not prepared for his answers. Luca was behind him, lurking in the shadows, Lucian heard him speak “Detailed investigation has brought nothing to our eyes that would seem malicious or destructive. Yes, he somehow accessed the ship from a mere Pad.”

“Yes, we think that his ability is nothing normal, but we can’t figure out why he has it, weather it was given to him or he was born with it is something that we cannot determine.” Luca continued.

Captain Al’Jafar’s face did not say much as he was busy figuring out the new information that was just provided to him, after few moments he glared at Luca Prom and asked “And when were you going to warn me about this thing he can do?”

Luca looked at the man and just shrugged his shoulders, “You did not need to know. At that time anyway.”

Al’Jafar threw his cup of water startling his senior staff, “YOU JEOPARDIZED MY CREW AND MY SHIP!”

An ungodly scream escaped his lips as the cup broke behind Luca’s back. Everyone in his vicinity has never seen their captain this agitated and emotional. His uniform creased so he used his hands to straighten it out and furthermore to compose his thoughts and feelings.

After few seconds he spoke again, this time his voice much lower “Council will hear about this.”

He turned to exit when Luca’s silent voice stopped him in his tracts, “What makes you think they do not know about it? Know this ‘Captain’ not everything I do is secretive. I spent too much of my own time researching about this phenomena so please give me at least the benefit of the doubt.”

Al’Jafar stood in utter silence while those words washed over the room.

Lucian watched the proceedings like some soap opera, expecting these two men to fight at any time. So sure of this, that he almost started cheering. He had no favorite, he just loved to see some drama unfold that was easily avoided. Stupidity of the situation was more evident as they got scolded by Lucian, “Both of you are behaving like spoiled children.”

Lucian let these words to hang in the air while both Luca and Al’Jafar turned to watch him, “I know, I know.” He lifted his hands and tried to calm them further, “It’s not easy to behave like grown men, but let’s try anyway. Look I’ll admit I’ve done few questionable things while I’m using this ship but I’m figuring shit out. I do not know what I can do.”

“Let me tell you this, those THINGS,” venom dripped from that word, “did something to me while I was on that slave colony. And I do not remember anything.”

“Furthermore, I’ve just lost both of my parents so I’m sorry if I sound ungrateful here but I’m leaving to give them a proper burial.” Lucian stood up and walked out.

Nobody stopped him, who could after such a speech, as he was moving towards the elevator he forgot one major thing. The ship was unfamiliar. He never remembered where he was led, or how to get where his parents were located. But of course he could not just walk back into a room where he was just moments before giving lip service to bunch of military service men. Lucian was fucked and he knew it, but instead of following his own advice, he chose to ride the God of War’s elevator up and down.

Of course there were few other choices for the man, like going to Ericha and Liza, but this was scrapped soon after he spent quite few minutes riding the elevator with several service men. Doors would open and he would see destruction and bodies of pirates and robots that were sprawled around every deck that he had stopped on, unusual how men and women of this ship’s crew were so brave as to fight on one deck with pirates toe to toe with basically their bare hands.

He had to give them their hard earned credit, everything they did here was heroic. He found himself longing to be a part of such force. To boldly tread over enemies and rescue those that needed help.

He was on his way back to his quarters when he saw two very large red bodied men. Upon a closer inspection he saw that they were very similar to devils from earth. For a second he thought he was seeing things. Moving closer he saw their tails move and he now he was quite certain that he was indeed seeing an extraterrestrial beings that were out of the fiction stories from earth.

He wanted to ask few questions but held back since he did not know what they could do, in reality they had at least few feet over Lucian. So he was looking and finally saw what was in front of them.

He did not see that they were being escorted by other people since their back were so big, but now he could see their handcuffs firmly in place over their hands and arms. Their cuffs bind their arms in such a way that Lucian saw it was extremely hard for them to move at all, the crowd moved slowly, the two alien’s bodies were riddled with injuries, a scratch here a bloody cut there, but he could see that they had a sturdy frame and felt little to no pain.

He was curious about their, or at least their species, involvement in Earth’s history. Or at least forming of Lucian’s religion. He celebrated Christmas, that alone did not make him a Christian, but he read the Holy book and he had to wonder how much influence the outside had on forming of Earth’s history. Lucian considered how his own past might influence his current feelings, but he had to admit they looked extremely wicked.

Even though they were bound, their black, empty, pits that replaced eyes kept him back at bay as he wanted to approach closer and inspect them further. But no, long nails on their hands, creepy red skin and horns on their head were just about enough to make him reconsider all of his previous deeds. In retrospect he wanted to run away and start a journal of all of his previous misdeeds, but he had something to prove to himself. So, silly bravery held him in place while the two massive bodies walked beside him and towards the lifts. He was slightly disappointed that they did not have wings, but that was soon replaced by his shock as he could see the extent of their injuries.

Their tails were shot clean off, their backs received extensive burns and he could see the blood slowly drip down their backs. Red blood? Lucian thought. Not so different from humans.

Soon when every member of their escort team was on the lift they moved on with a silent shut of their door. He forgot to ask anyone in that large group about directions, but then again, somehow he found that he was happy.

Most of the decks were busy collecting the killed enemy soldiers and destroyed bits and pieces of their robotic servants, but as he went further down the ship he finally managed to reach a desolate area. Finally after searching high and low he found what he was looking for, someone that could help him although there was just one problem for Lucian, the people he wanted to ask were having rabid sex.