Chapter 2

Wiphas

I can see and hear the chaos, fire, screams, and cries of people that still are buried under the building. All around me are wounded or dead. One moment, we were celebrating the life of the newborn prince, next everything is up in flames.

I was standing in the castle gardens when I heard a big explosion.

I can taste the ash and blood in the air. It's hot, the flames are slowly consuming everything around us.

I wake up covered in sweat, my heart pounds out of my chest. I look desperately around. But I am safe on my ship the Levia.

Tired, I rub my right hand over my face up to my horns. It was only a bad dream of a long-lost past. I get up from my bed.

Trying to shake the remnants of my dream. Cracking my knuckles and neck, I walk to my space shower. After I'm clean, I contact on my com-system, my First Officer,

"Suri, I need an update."

"I'm on my way to the conference room captain. I will meet you there in five."

I get out of my quarters and walk briskly to the conference room. All crewmen that see me flatten themselves to the walls. Inwardly I sight and try to look friendlier. Before I reach the conference room, Cronus walks around the corner, nearly colliding with me. I grab and steady him before he falls over.

"I'm sorry, Captain, I was lost in thought." I laugh at him, the two crewmen that were with us on this floor look at me like I lost my horns.

"Everything is fine, my old friend. Are you all right?"

"Yes, I am."

"I would like to talk to you some more, but I need to get going. Suri awaits me in the conference room. But we could meet for a quick lunch?"

"Sure, Captain. I will see you then. May Shayla be with you."

"And with you, my friend."

I realize I'm running late, so I start jogging to the conference room. Suri already waits inside for me together with Orin, his twin and our communication officer, and Krelak, my weapon specialist.

"Suri Report"

"No incident on the ship. But Orin here caught a communication snippet. It seems that King Ro-Yji gets a diplomatic visit from the humans of Terra-Solaris."

"Hmm, what would the humans want from him. They never even heard us out when we contacted them. Is this interfering with our plans to save our people from the dungeons?"

"I believe we could use this as a diversion. A small team of four to five of us could attack the space ship of the diplomat and kidnap him. You and the others may be able to free our men from the dungeons unnoticed." Orin suggests.

"But to what ends, Orin?"

"Captain, as you well know, the King cut all ties with the federation. Blaming them for the murder. We should find out what role this diplomat is playing."

I take a moment to think about the new information, making up my mind I speak,

"Well, we need to know if Ro-Yji gains allies against us, a team of four alphas in shifted form. Heavily armed with laser guns and sabers. We need to cover our tracks, so they will think it was a mere pirate attack and not us. We could place a few distorters around the point they fall out of hyperspace. They should be blind for 20 minutes, the coms are blocked too. We board with a small shuttle their ship and get the diplomat and any information on this trip. When we have what we want from the diplomat, we send him back with a small shuttle. We will kill only if necessary. How is the plan so safe, our men?"

Orin pulls up the layout of the dungeons on the screen.

"Our Spy there verified the location with us. They are held in prison on this moon in the fourth underground level. What's making beaming difficult without trackers. Our spy impersonates one of the guards he killed. The trackers should be reaching our men before the diplomats' ship fall out of hyperspace. Half an hour later, our Spy creates an explosion in the canteen of the guards and shut down their com and security center. We can fly overhead and beam our people out. Doc and his team are on standby to remove the fails safes before they can be activated. We have 10 minutes to pull all this off. A timed attack on the diplomat should get our ship safely back. Before, it will be discovered that our men got rescued. We will rendezvous with our shuttle at the Astrians Rings. Pick them up and haul ass back to Xerun over a one-week track inside hyperspace to shake off any followers if there are any."

"Malhi thinks it's possible to scatter our antimatter tracks. But it's risky, he only suggests this if we are followed. He still thinks the better option is using distorters. It will not bear the risk of breaking our ship in half. The only problem will be, we fly blind too. Till we break out of the field range, and then we can disappear in hyperspace," Suri adds.

"Ok, we cannot risk our ship. Krelak, you will inform Malhi of my decision. We will use the distorters. I want them placed in that two quadrants and cross overlaid by those two."

I point to the star map.

"This will be our entry, that will be our escape route. Krelak I want you to select two more men, I will go with you kidnapping the diplomat. Suri, you lead our rescue mission. We have approximately five days before the ship arrives. I want all men in top form for both missions."

"Aye Captain," all three replies.

Mahli is one hell of an engineer, but I still want my ship as safe as possible. I hope the distorters will be enough. Leaving the conference room, I check the time. Nearly lunchtime.

Walking to our canteen, I send a quick prayer to Shayla. I hope the rescue of our men will be successful as well as getting all back in one piece. I can't lose any more of them. They all risk their lives for me.