“Let’s go, Father.”
“You have allies on Rogue 5?”
“Yes.” I was already moving, grabbing gear.
“What else have you been doing out there?” My father’s tone made me pause, as I heard a bit of mirth behind the question. And perhaps...approval?
No. Now was not the time to indulge in wishful thinking. “Priorities, father. Bakkarholt. Bertok.” I glanced at Zara, who stood stoically, waiting to leave with my mother. “Then we’ll talk about the rest.”
“Agreed.” My father waved Erick ahead. “Go, Captain. Now. We’re right behind you.” While he knew how to fly a craft, I’d rarely known him to do it. He fought battles diplomatically not in space with weapons. We had to intercept Cerberus’ ship, had to keep him from destroying Bakkarholt. We couldn't do it from the ground. He was a wise man and knew what needed to be done. He just had to believe it was actually happening.
Father and Mother embraced briefly, and I touched Zara on the cheek. “Behave, gara. Do not place yourself in danger. I will return.”
The guards left with Erick until it was just the four of us, my parents, Zara and me. “I will not leave Zara unprotected like this father.”
“Don’t worry, Isaak. You should know your father better than that.” My mother was smiling as she moved to the door. Opened it.
Half a dozen guards stood outside. My mother’s personal guards. They fought for the right to protect her every year in a tournament. It was the most exalted position in my father’s army, and he paid them very, very well.
I traced the line of Zara’s cheek and pretended her smile was real. She would be safe.
It wasn't much, but it was all I could give her.
14
Isaak
Sitting in the pilot’s seat of my favorite fighter, Malik’s identical ship visible on my flight screen, I finally felt like I had come home.
My father’s silence from the seat next to me was all too familiar as well, so I chose to ignore it and addressed Erick through the comms rather than fumble my way through awkward conversation with a male who clearly did not wish to speak to me. I’d never once flown with him, learning from instructors or by pure seat-of-the-pants instinct.
“Coordinates transmitted, Erick. Verify,” I said.
“Verified. What’s the plan, Isaak?” There he was, my old friend. If he touched Zara again, I’d have to rethink his role. Out here, flying, I was in command, but we were more than soldiers to one another. We had always been close, me, Malik, and Erick. Brothers of a sort. The familiar tenor of his voice made me realize there were things on Trion I had missed. I’d walked away from more than my parents.
“Destroy them,” I told him, steering us around the nearest asteroid belt to where the Cerberus ship was. “No prisoners. No mercy. They are here to kill our people. We take them out by whatever means necessary.”
I’d fought the Hive before. Not as a fighter but as a rebel. I’d never once considered the Cerberus legion to be an enemy. Most steered clear while I was aiming my ship right for them.
My father made a noise that sounded like a groan, but this was not up for debate. Cerberus wanted Zara for himself. No farking way that was happening. He was going to destroy a city on Trion. No farking way that was happening either. If I didn’t stop him, no one would. It would be too late for any Trion military to put up defenses.
I needed the leader of one of the most notorious Rogue 5 legions to hear me loud and clear. Go after Zara, you die.
Go after my people, you die.
In this, Zara was correct. I was not my brother. I would not negotiate. Fark that, I wouldn’t even listen to people from such a vile criminal organization. I was not a diplomat or a politician, I was a hunter, a killer, a warrior without mercy if someone threatened what was mine.
But then, Zara wasn’t truly mine. Neither was Trion… not anymore. But I buried those thoughts. They were not for now. Later, I would deal with the fallout of this fight. Later, I would deal with my father’s disapproval and my mother’s sorrow because this time. I would leave, and they would know the true reason. While we all mourned Malik still, the truth couldn’t hide behind his loss. Right now, I had to protect them all.
“I have nothing on my scanners. Are you sure this is the right place?” Erick asked.
“Yes. Trust me. They’re here.” I reached forward and adjusted my ship’s scanners to a frequency that would detect the stealth technology I was sure the Cerberus ship was using. Zenos had it, could see them. He was used to the Hive tech. I knew because I’d sold it to them. “Adjust your scanners to match mine. You won’t see the ship, more like a shadow.”
“Fark. I see it.” Erick sounded shocked. My father leaned forward in the co-pilot’s seat and reached for the controls.
“Targeting their ship’s engines.” My father’s nimble fingers moved over the controls with a practiced ease that reminded me he’d once served in the Coalition Fleet, that he’d been a fighter before becoming a diplomat. That my mother, like Zara, was an Interstellar Bride.
“Don’t activate the ion cannon yet,” I told him. “As soon as you lock on target, they’ll know we can see them, and they’ll attack.”