They moved across the surface, scrambling for high ground. The night skies of the foreign world were illuminated by the endless firefight. Michael looked to his right and then grabbed Hanson, dragging him over the barrier as he searched for his team. Max was still missing.

~~~

“How much longer?” Serena asked.

Max looked at Serena and shook his head. They were scheduled for evac in less than 30 minutes, and those minutes would fly. Chances were they weren’t making it. He should have left her on the transport. He watched irritation and anger flood his wife’s face. She hated losing.

Setting the charges, he tossed another pack to her. The substation was key in the planet’s defenses. If they could remove it the sub-field protecting the planet would fail, and the invasion would begin. Their holding planets were already weak, and the Empire now ruled more than three-quarters of the known star systems. The war was going badly, and its end was near. Max swallowed the bitter pill that the Alliance was losing, and thus the Clone Wars would end soon with their surrender. But that didn’t matter. This planet was theirs.

~~~

Michael felt the whistling of incoming before it hit. He moved to his side and folded into a ball to protect his softer parts. He cussed as the impact was almost directly on him, and he could feel the sting of something burning as it pierced his side. The Imperials weren’t budging. They were fighting back and holding the Royals in check. Sitting up, Michael reached behind him and pulled out a large hot piece of shrapnel. It burned his hands and took three tries to remove it, but leaving it in would have been worse. The material was a liquid heat alloy that melted into the skin and poisoned the blood supply.

“Hanson, let’s move. Dust-off in twenty, and we’re going to have to haul to get there.”

Michael reached for his Com officer to pull his hand free of his body. Looking down he registered the smoking remains of Hanson and the fact that the incoming round had torn Hanson's body into three parts, with pieces everywhere. Taking the com unit from his dead friend, Michael also took Hanson's dogtags and placed one in what might have been his mouth. Didn’t know if they would or could clear the field and process the bodies, but just in case it would be nice to return Hanson’s genetics home.

Michael rushed the field, creeping along the embankment, using its higher rise for cover. It was the movement of Sean over the top that caused him to pause. Grabbing Sean and pulling him next to him, they sheltered for a moment.

“You set them?”

Sean nodded, gulping a harsh breath to fill his lungs. He had breathed in the gas as he infiltrated into enemy lines to bury the live rounds under their feet.

“Yeah, along the ridge and three clicks in. The detonation sequence is set to go in eight minutes so we need to haul ass.”

“I’ve got boomers on the left crawling into the field. Hanson is down; Jolly took it back sixty feet and I haven't seen the B-boys.”

“I saw them. Bark and Brine are both toast. They took the left ridge down and out. The Imperials were using the targeting laser as a heat seeker. They never stood a chance.” Sean bent his head forward as the rush of air in his tortured lungs made his dizzy. “Cap?”

“I don’t know. He and Serena went into the access port. We’ve got to hold the line and maintain the right until he can set the charges. This substation sub-field will be re-enforced after tonight if we fail.”

“Michael.” Michael took the com unit and inserted it in his ear at the sound of Max’s voice.

“Go, Cap, what’s your twenty?”

“Charges are set, but the Imperials are moving fast. We’re coming out. Dust-off in ten. Get your men there.”

“Aye, Cap. Don’t be late, Maxwell.”

Michael took out the unit and looked at Sean. “My men? Guess that would be you.” Everyone else was dead. Hooking an arm through Sean’s arm, Michael hauled him to his feet and dragged him along the bottom of the ridge, back to their landing location and the evac transport. Along the way he spotted Kyle, still working on their boys who had been in the initial spill from the transport, thus taking the first direct hits. Three hulls of other transport ships were burning in the distance, their fires lighting the sky.

“Kyle, it’s time!”

Kyle just kept working, applying pressure to a wound that was pumping out blood at an alarming rate and ignoring Michael’s voice, .

“Kyle!” The man was unrecognizable, covered in the blood of their massacred team. Sean looked at Michael and nodded. The two men each grabbed an arm and dragged Kyle away.

“No!”

Michael stopped and grabbed Kyle by the face, his burned hands stinging. “Read the field, Kyle. Feel it! Is there anyone left alive?”

Kyle concentrated, reaching out to his fallen comrades. Nothing. Sweet death hurled them in the flight of angels, and the field was rotten with their decaying flesh.

“No,” he said quietly. They took his arms and continued to move him to the transport.

The deck officer came down the loading ramp. “Sir, Command has ordered dust-off in three. The fleet is jumping the portal. Imperial battlecruisers just entered the system.”

Michael looked back over his shoulder. All these men laid waste in the field, and for what? Before they could take the world, they were fleeing.

“Cap is on his way. We wait.”

“But, Sir!”

“We wait!” Michael pushed Sean and Kyle into the transport, and shoved Sean in a seat.

“Kyle, Sean sucked in the creeper gas. His lungs are fried.”

Kyle hurried over to Sean and went to work. He was a first class healer, but the fellowship of death was shutting him down. Empaths such as Kyle rarely survived battle. Witnessing the fleeing of men’s spirits as they died painfully, usually drove them insane.

The pilot came forward to inform him that they had to leave or miss the hyperjump. Michael just swore under his breath. He was normally the pilot and tactical officer, but because the mission was a "Red Mission" and all bodies were needed on the field, the pilot and flight officer were loaners. This had been a suicide mission from the start.

Peering out in the dark, he could see the boomer creeping forward slowly along the back ridge. Taking out a control box, he hit the switch and detonated the live mines they had set. Maxwell, get the lead out!

~~~

“Serena, the back corridor is filling with Imperials! We have to go around.”

Serena nodded and reaching into her pack, she took out an explosive charge with a delay nitro switch and tossed it down the escape corridor. Max swore and grabbed her body, slamming her hard against the wall and shielding her as the charge exploded. The complex was deep in the earth, and the charge could have collapsed the support struts. They needed to leave. Max looked at his timer. No time. They had less than two minutes to get out.

“Corridors cleared, honey.” Max laughed at his wife’s tone.

Max kissed his wife quickly and then dragged her behind him down the clearing corridor as the smoke and debris dispersed. The upper girders were groaning under the stress of the weakened substructure caused by the explosion. Rushing forward he could see the access port and freedom.

Serena heard the sound first. The strain and then crash of the rallying Imperial soldiers rushing the corridor behind them, not taking heed of the already dangerous situation. She could feel the heated pulse of their pulsar rifles laying down the pursuing fire along her back. Max turned and looked at his wife in confusion as she staggered. Reaching into her bag, she pulled out another detonating charge and he shook his head no. It would bring the mountain down on their heads.

Serena simply turned in her last act of life and tossed the charge down the corridor they had just cleared. Max looked at his wife’s back in horror. She had taken a pulsar blast in her back and half her torso and head was gone. All that remained was bloody pulp. He grabbed her close as she sank to the ground.

“Serena!”

“Go!” Her voice was already far away and he watched her eyes roll back in her head as she slumped into death.

It was the explosion of the blast that sent him propelling towards the access port, as the mountain roared and the corridor collapsed. A burning sheering pain moved across his face, and he fell forward into nothing.

~~~

Michael looked out towards the access port as the explosion was heard topside.

The evac shook as a mini seismic event rumbled the ground beneath it. Michael felt the strain on his connection. No!!!!

“Sir, this ground is unstable. We have to go!”

Michael took out his gun and put it in the man’s face. “We go nowhere!” Michael turned to look at Sean who took up his weapon and took out the deck officer with a single shot.

“Sean?”

“I got them! Go!”

“No one leaves until I’ve got Cap.”

Sean sneered at the pilot. “We’re not going anywhere.” He lifted his gun and motioned for the man to take a seat coughing. “Michael!” He turned back to Sean. “I can’t feel Serena.” Michael nodded and ran.

Michael was through the loading doors and into the access port before Kyle could look up. The area was covered in smoke and debris, and Michael coughed as the materials hit his lungs. Working his way forward he came to the caved-in corridor and found his twin, Maxwell. Reaching down he felt for a pulse, already knowing that Max was still alive. He couldn’t have felt him if he wasn’t.

Max was unconscious and barely breathing. Michael knew that Serena was lost. Her body was nowhere to be found. Scrambling to dig his brother out, Michael pulled Max free and turned him. He had a large piece of shrapnel embedded in his face. Michael, cussing against the pain in his hands, pulled it out and ripped off part of his shirt to wrap around Max’s head to stop the bleeding.

Picking up his brother in a fireman’s hold, he slowly moved them out of the tunnel and back to the transport. Coming up the last rise to the ship, he noticed boomers moving in from the right. They were toast. Suddenly he saw the core of them explode and a barrage of fire fight. Looking at the loading doors, there stood Kyle laying down a suppressing fire to give him cover.

Quickly he climbed onboard past Kyle and dumped his brother in a chair, belting him in. Rushing back to the door, he pulled Kyle in and hit the airlock. The doors sealed as Michael propelled Kyle with him to the forward compartment.

“Kyle, see to Cap.” Michael rushed forward pass the pilot and Sean.

“Michael, Serena?” Sean asked. Michael looked at Sean and shook his head. Sean’s twin was dead. Sean had known it, but he had to ask, to hope. Buckling into his normal seat, Michael ignored normal dust-off procedures and punched it, leaving that world of death behind and rejoining the Royal fleet.

“Tango Roger transport, do you copy?”

“This is Tango Roger transport one. We are air, and five by five.”

“Transport what is your twenty?”

“Eight parsecs and ten on the outside.”

“Transport, we’ve got you in our field, but hyperjump is in two. Can you make speed to coordinates zero-two-twelve-mark-one?”

“Negative, command. We are floating armor. Best we can haul is in four.”

The command deck com officer looked at his commander. They weren’t going to make it before the fleet jumped to hyperspace.

“How many on board?” The fleet commander asked his officer quietly.

“I’ve got six, Sir. The other three ships were lost.” The commander nodded. The abort operation was a wash. Over a hundred men had gone down with only six coming back, and now they were forced to abandon them as well.

The door to the command deck opened and a figure dressed in black Royal robes entered the room. All the men cleared his way as he came forward. He was the Eminent.

“What is the situation?”

“My Lord, the final assault crew has cleared the planet, but they left dust-off too late. They won’t make rendezvous in time for the jump, and they'll be pulverized in the wake.”

“What unit was deployed?”

“The Twins.”

Alex looked at the starfield and the monitor showing the fast-moving transport.

The entire monitor glowed, and he turned to search the field for them.

“Can the onboard set jump be aborted?”

“No Sir, we’re locked into the fleet's central command. The entire fleet will jump at the same time. Controlled jump is the only way to make sure that the battlecruisers and armor don’t collide on the other side of the stream.”

Alex felt the glow and pull again. He needed those men. “Give me the com.”

An officer came quick and handed Alex the receiver and scurried away quickly. “They disturbed the matrix. I need them.” Alex put the com on and called through. “This is command. Tango Roger, proceed to the following coordinates...” Alex looked at the monitors to confirm. “Three-two-two-mark-seven. Do you copy?”

“Affirmative, command. That’s three-two-two-mark-seven.”

The operations officer looked at his monitor and frowned. “Sir, that will place them within the engine’s backwash. The hyperjump will fry their portal cells and their hull plating will buckle under the heat.”

Alex looked at the man. “Jump is in one. They can ride in the wake and maybe they’ll fry, but either way they’re dead. This is a chance.”

The planet below suddenly exploded and the sub-field protection grid was offline. They looked at the open planet and then turned away. It lay there - all ready to be taken - and no one available to do the job. It was nothing but waste.

Michael double-checked the coordinates and made for the backwash area of the larger battle cruiser. They would fry in the hyperwash as the engine heated to hyperjump. He increased all energies to his shields and disengaged his engines. He wouldn’t need them. They could ride the wave and either they made it, or they were dead. He could use the extra power to re-enforce his shields.

“My Lord, Tango Roger has reached the coordinates and cut their engines.”

Alex nodded. “Brave man. When we come out on the other side, I want a full-spread search for them. His energy will be gone, and life support will be offline. We'll need to find them fast.”

“My Lord.” The man affirmed as he began programming the search mode into his consul as the count down began.

“Hyperjump in seven, six, five, four, three, two, one…..” Alex stood firmly upright as the ships moved into the slipstream and the ship elongated. In an instant all the molecules of his body seemed to dissolve and coalesce on the other side.

Michael could feel the pull of space as the larger ship dragged them forward.

The last thing he felt was ripping of oxygen from his lungs.

~~~

“He’s waking, My Lord.” Alex turned to the hospital cubicle and watched as Michael’s eyes slowly fluttered open.

“Good, you have returned.” Michael just frowned at Alex . An Eminent One.

“My brother? The rest of my men...” His voice was deep and rough as it whispered against the dryness in his throat, stripped by the loss of oxygen.

“They are recovering. Your brother, the Captain is in surgery. They are trying to save his eye. The other two are in regeneration. One man’s lungs were ripped to shreds from the inside. They submerged him into regeneration fluid. He should be recycled in about four days. The empath was removed to protective sheltering. He sustained emotional trauma from his empathic links. They’re giving him a neutral environment so his internal balance can be restored.”

“Thank you.”

“Your injuries were not light either. You took three rounds to your back. They removed residual shrapnel and want to submerge you in a regeneration tank too. I forestalled them so you could know how your crew is. I take it you are not interested in the two loaner flight crewmen?” Michael just shrugged. They didn’t belong to him. Was he supposed to care? His eyes narrowed at the mythical creature. An Eminent One.

“You were the one. The one that told me to ride the wash.” Alex just nodded. “Why?”

“You bent the matrix. I could feel a movement in the fabric. Someone, or perhaps all of you on that ship are important. Why is unclear, as are all things unseen. Time will play the game and the journey’s walk will write the yarn.”

“You're definitely an Eminent One. Damn riddles and parables.” Michael just shook his head.

Alex just smiled at that. Yes he found it irritating too. He could almost remember a time when he was normal, before his body was altered for the higher purpose. Now the visions and words tumbled from his body almost without his control, as if he were two people sharing a single form.

“ Alex . Call me Alex .” Alex sat next to Michael’s bed. “Our lives are joined. The threads are unclear, but the twists are there. This war is over. The Imperials will win, and the star systems will run red from Khivar’s tyrannical reign.”

“You see all that?”

“Yes. It was apparent since the last full cycle.” Michael swore. A whole damn cycle? A year?

“Then my men died for no cause?”

“No. They did not.”

“You should’ve stopped the operation. Ended the mission. What's the use of being able to see the future if you don't do anything with the knowledge you gain? My men, my brother, his wife...none of them needed to be sacrificed.”

Alex just gazed at the man and felt his anger. “Seeing a path is different from walking it. You are mistaken if you think I can alter what fate has already designed. It was my fate to save you and your remaining men; that is the truth I see. We have a journey to fulfill. This war is over and the Empire ruled by Khivar will reign in terror, but we’re far from through. The One will come.”

“The One?”

“All is not clear.” Alex stood to leave and the men around them bowed to him. He frowned. A tall man, thin and lanky, he stood impressive and strong, cloaked in black with the emblem of the offices of the Eminent around his neck. He was a genetically altered humanoid, designed to have increased mental abilities both in power and thought. Such beings were alterations of a construct and feared by most, because their power and the extent of it were unknown. Alex looked back at Michael.

“You and your brother, you are Attilaan?”

“Yes. And my one crew member, Sean. He was…his twin was my brother’s bonded mate.”

Alex nodded. “And your mate?”

Michael just shrugged. So what? He was a freak. “I don't have one. I never bonded.”

Alex stopped at that and looked back at the man. Interesting. An anomaly. “That is unusual, a rarity. I thought such situations to be a myth.”

“Might as well be. One in every sixty billion births is born unbonded. Just my birthright.” Michael looked at the tall man with his neat slight beard and eyes brimming in power and intelligence. “An Eminent One. I thought you were a myth as well.”

Alex understood the man's bitterness, to be a freak among his own kind. Attilaans were a warlike race that took their species to the brink of extinction over a hundred thousand years ago. They fought everyone and everything - killing their own clansmen and brethren. Civil war and blood feuds almost eradicated them. On the eve of their extinction they initiated a new system of breeding which bonded the members to a mate almost from childhood. At eight the bond would initiate and each person would find their intended. When they came of age, they married. All females on the planet produced two eggs at every ovulation cycle so all the births were twins. Same-sex bonds were outlawed as was genocide, and Attilaans never bred outside their own race.

“It is legend that an unbonded male would have strengths untold and a special destiny.”

Michael just shrugged. Yeah, those Eminent creatures searched through ancient prophecies, always hoping to find an answer to all the chaos and bloodshed. He could care less. His own circumstances occupied his mind. It was a source of dishonor, a blight on his family name and bloodline, the humiliation of being a freak. When he came of age and his brother married, the great houses of his world hid their daughters from him to prevent him from wanting to ally with their houses without a bond. His only destiny was to be a freak and alone.

“It doesn’t matter. My world was one of the first taken by Khivar.” Alex nodded. That was true. But at least his world still existed. Enslaved, but they existed. So many others did not.

Khivar had destroyed numerous worlds, entire solar systems and those races had ceased to exist. He took Attilaans for their warrior genetics. Khivar was a collector of genetic material. He took the best from the genomes, and then destroyed what he didn’t want, genetically altering his next race of clones until there was nothing left except to fight his created super race.

“Did he take your genetics?”

“Most of them. Those he didn't, he destroyed. The rest he enslaved. We, a few of us, were already engaged in the war effort for the Federation hoping that the Royals could restore the balance to this galaxy. Sean’s wife was on a penal colony, one of the first destroyed.”

“I am sorry.”

“Not your fault, and Sean seemed to care less. He bonded to his wife at eight, married ten cycles later, and on their wedding night she tried to strangle him to death. He tied her to the bed, finished his wedding night, and the next morning called authorities to have her arrested for attempting to murder a member of our race. She had been there ever since.”

“Real love match?”

Michael was confused. There was no word for ‘love’ in his race’s vocabulary. They married for alliances, to build bonds and strength and to breed, but for emotions? Emotions were what brought their world to the brink of extinction. They were forbidden. It was the bond that kept a man and wife together, and in the best case scenarios there were hoped-for feelings of fondness. Michael’s own parents spat at each other when entering a room. Michael couldn’t believe that he could envy that, but he did.

Alex stood to leave as a med tech came with an injection. Michael was going to be taken to the regeneration chamber. He was scheduled for a three day cycle.

“It is time for you to sleep, Commander. I will keep watch over you and yours, you have my promise.”

“Wait!” Michael looked in irritation as the hypo spray administered the drug, and he saw nothing.

~~~

Six years later….the present.

Max sat up in his bed sweating, as his heart raced out of his chest. The last thing he saw was her face. Serena.

Michael stirred on his side of the room at the sound of Max’s nightmare.

“You okay?”

Max sat up on the side of his bunk and sank his head in his hands, fingering the scar that marred the left side of his face from above his brow to his jawline.

“Yeah.”

“The old dream?”

“Yeah. Sorry to wake you, Michael.”

Michael just laughed and tried to instill some humor in the situation. “You didn’t. I was already up, and trying to get it down so I could sleep.”

Max chuckled. “I would appreciate it if at next port you find some way to get some of the tension out. I’m sick of trying to sleep to the sound of you messing with it. Damn, I’d have thought it would fall off by now.”

Michael just shrugged. He was sort of a lusty guy, and being unmated, he really had few options. He could pick up a bay whore who’d work him over for twenty credits, or he could use his own hand. His own hand didn’t cost him, and as far as he knew was disease free. The bay whores were on-the-spot convenient, but looking down at them mouthing a vital portion of his anatomy had him worried where the hell that mouth had been. Kissing was unheard of, and he wasn’t sticking any part of his body in a well-used hole that more than likely would cost him lots of drugs and a real crippling disease. Problem was that Michael really liked kissing. It was something he hadn’t done in forever, and thinking of sex occupied all his free mental time. That and gambling, drinking, and...yeah more sex.

Max stood and stretched. It was still early, but he had lost his desire for sleep. He had lost his desire for everything. No sense just lying there in the dark listening to his brother jerking off.

“Maxwell?”

“No. You sleep - or whatever it is you do. I’ll be on Conn.” Max left the room, as Michael rolled over in his bunk. Closing his eyes he could picture her...Serena. What a bitch. Cold, heartless, and undeniably one of the best demolition experts in the known Universe. Max had mourned her and in his own way, Michael did too. He had felt her, known her through his bond to his twin, where the emptiness in his brother's life made itself known.

A hot-blooded race that was emotionally cold.

~~~

“Captain.” The ensign on the deck stood up from Max’s chair.

“Sam, how’s the night?”

“Quiet. A Tollerian trawler was stopped by Imperial security and searched.”

“Results?”

“They didn’t find what they were looking for, but they destroyed the ship with all hands.” Max just nodded.

“Sir, would you like something to drink?”

“Stand down, Sam. Go get some shut-eye. I’ll keep the watch.” The other workers on the night Bridge were stunned. Especially when their Captain turned and looked at them. “All of you. It’s only a little time left in your shifts. The morning will be coming on soon. Take a break. Go.”

After they filed out, he sat and watched the skies. Nothing out there. No movement. It was always the same. Nothing happening. It was in these moments of the early morning when he liked to be alone, with nothing but the feel of the ship under his command, and the slow hum as all the day systems automatically came on line one by one.

It was just him and Serena, and that big starfield.

~~~

“Max.”

Alex was shocked to enter the room and find the entire Bridge empty except for Max. He had awakened moments ago by a wave of awareness. It hit him in his dreams and carried him to consciousness.

Searching the starfield, he looked for a disturbance.

“What you looking for, My Lord?”

Alex frowned at the title. Everyone called him Alex now, except Max. Max sometimes forgot himself and referred to Alex as an Eminent One again. That was almost six years gone. The Eminents were extinct except for him and two others.

They were now protected by Khivar himself.

After the war, Khivar hunted down the Council of Eminence, and slowly put all the members to death, extracting their DNA. It was a mistake. He couldn’t replicate the DNA, and the added genetics to his original strains tainted his matches. All of them were misaligned and his great genetic cloning process was in peril of being destroyed. Each Eminent he killed also changed the fabric of space. Parts of their known universe began to fold and buckle causing distortion fields and anomalous space ribbons. The best that could be surmised was that when an Eminent died, his mind, which was connected to the Great Understanding, was pulled from his or her body, thus tearing holes in the very fabric of space. The Great Understanding being a place where thought and time joined with reality and space.

Afraid of buckling and destroying the entire Universe, Khivar declared the remaining Eminent Ones protected. It was almost three years too late, and all that remained was Alex and his two remaining brothers. Khivar gave the three remaining Ones anything they wanted. As each of their brethren died, they collectively increased in power, taking the slain One’s power as their own. And whereas once the Eminent Ones were feared and held in awe, now the remaining three were even more revered. In the past six years since the end of the war, they were fast becoming the closest thing to walking Gods.

Alex didn’t appreciate the distinction. He would have sold his soul to be human again, to live a normal life and to have children. Ironically, as much power as he wielded in his body, that was the very thing he couldn’t have. And even seeing Khivar, a source of untold evil in their Universe, he was powerless to interfere. A higher Cosmic Law left him and his kind as advisors, teachers, and seers, but they were forbidden to interfere in the lives of those around them. It was impossible and therefore frustrating to be able to see future, but be unable to affect it. The most he could do was walk a path, and offer a way or counsel, and so that was what he did.

Looking at the starfield, he saw the bend, the disturbance. It was there. Rygel V. That was what he sought.

“I need to go down to Rygel V.”

Max looked at Alex and frowned. Rygel V? It was a trading planet full of cut-throats, bandits and space pirates. The place was a breeding ground for all the rabble of six star systems. Slave traders ran Bay Whores up and down the populated seaboard, spreading pestilence.

“That scum hole? What could you hope to find there?”

Max knew that planet well. They had almost lost Sean there a few times in games of Brillo and a three tier poker. He almost got them all killed last time, by betting their last ship on a pot. He lost. They had been stranded there until they could scrape up enough credits for a new ship, and in the meantime six of his crew contracted space herpes. By the time it was discovered, it was too late. Space herpes originated as a small microtic virus that quickly evolved into something larger and no longer needing its host. It took them half a cycle to hunt down and destroy all the herpes off the ship. Michael still had nightmares of waking to one crawling up his leg. His third leg, and his most treasured part of his anatomy.

“The beginning of the journey’s end. All starts with a single thread and grows in proportion, but the truth of it is finding that first strand.”

Max just looked at Alex and shook his head. “Right!”

~~~

A few moments later Michael tracked down his brother, standing at the monitor watching a shuttle pod take off for the planet. They had come into an orbital pattern, and it took Alex only a few moments to be granted permission to enter protected Rygelian space.

“Where’s he going?”

Max looked at his brother, and headed back to the Bridge. “Rygel V. He’s got some disturbance in his space.”

“Needed to get laid, huh?”

Max laughed. Oh yeah. One track mind. “No he felt something, so he went to investigate.”

Michael looked over his shoulder at the shuttle becoming smaller and smaller as it entered the inner atmosphere of the Demon planet, Rygel V. Cursed place.

“And you let him go alone?” Michael looked at his brother in shock.

Max just shrugged and said the words he knew that would make Michael back off.

“Space herpes.” “He’ll be fine.” Michael actually did a little hop in his walk as if he could still feel those creatures moving over him.

They headed back to the Bridge when they passed Alex ’s private quarters. It was the largest redesigned part of the ship, and none of them had entered it in the three years since they joined Alex ’s crew. It was a source of fascination for the entire crew, and the rumors were outrageous, especially for the last half a cycle.

About half a cycle ago, Alex ordered them to detour to a special location. There he brought on a woman, a slave some said, but others swore that it was two people. Everyone stared at the doors of Alex ’s quarters, wanting to know what went on in there. But no one had the nerve to actually enter.

“Hey, Max, you want to...” Michael gestured to the door.

Max just shook his head no and led his brother away. “That would be an invasion of Alex ’s privacy. Remember, we work for him.”

Michael just shrugged. Sure, but there could be girls in there...or at least a girl. She shouldn’t be alone, all worried about Alex and stuff.

Reading Michael’s mind, Max just rolled his eyes. It was unfortunate that Michael had been cursed with being unbonded, because he was one vigorous guy needing and wanting attention from the opposite sex. Serena had been Max's world, not always in a good way, but she had been his life mate and he regretted that Michael had never had that.

“Come on. We’ve got work.”

Khivar finally released him three years ago, Alex was given anything he asked for. He requested a ship, this ship. It was an end-of-the-war new battlecruiser, smaller than the previous ones, used for fast running speeds and the ability to move across space at incredible distances. It armory and shielding were top of the line, and it had incredible docking and storage bays.

Alex took the ship and hunted down the Attilaan twins and what was left of their crew to help him run his business. They specialized in recovery and salvage.

Alex spent time researching lost worlds and their treasures, artifacts and ancient scrolls. He even pinpointed lost vessels for them to recover and restore to their original owners for a price. After three years of work they had made a name for themselves, and now rebuilding worlds contracted them to find what was lost, or to acquire something they needed. It was highly lucrative, and Max and Michael between them, had built up enough credits and wealth to buy their own ship. They chose to remain with Alex as his crew because a few years ago it stopped being a job and became a family.

~~~

Alex tracked the disturbance to a hole-in-the-wall dive offering illegal alcohol, ethanol and synthanol. The bar was full of seedy types, many that Alex recognized as barter pirates and slavers. Walking through the crowd, they moved out of his way, afraid to touch him. Finding a back door, he located the rental rooms and entered one without knocking.

“How did you get here?” he asked quietly.

The voice was low and came from the shadows, “A Tollerian trawler. I could feel the danger, so I took a shuttle and rewrote the manifest records to remove it from their inventory.”

“Khivar is looking for you? Why?”

“He knows.” Alex looked at the other Eminent One.

“How?” This was bad.

“I don’t know. I swear, Alex . I don’t know.” She was lying. She suspected.

Alex paced the room and then looked back at his brother. “I believe you, brother.”

“Dammit! I told you not to call me that! I am a woman.” The woman emerged from the shadows, and Alex couldn’t hide his reaction.

“Oh God! You are sick!” She looked terri ble. Topolski never looked terri ble.

Alex rushed to her side, and gathered Leena close. He teased her about being referred to as a brother, since all Eminent Ones were called 'brother', even the females, but she was the farthest from that to him. Leena - his pet nickname for Kathleen Topolski.

“Not sick...poisoned.”

Alex picked her up and placed her on the tiny bed. “Who? Who would do this to one of us? Not Khivar!”

“The same. He used mescarlini, the poison of truth. I had no truth to give, but the poisoned remained.”

“How did you escape?” Alex joined Kathleen on the bed wiping her sweating face with a cloth and pulling her into his arms.

“I’m still who I am. I stood up and walked out. Even Khivar would not dare kill me at his own hand. This way is more insidious and sneaky.”

“Leena, let me take you on my ship. Shiva is in orbit. I can get you there in a short time. My healer, Kyle, he is special...even for his kind. He has two hearts.”

“No, the path is settled, time stretches and my destiny breathes its own breath.

This is not to pass.” She looked at him. Alex . Her best friend, her brother...her lover. They were joined by more than power, but denied ever having intimate contact because Eminent Ones' mating was forbidden. So he had remained her closest friend, her brother in the Eminence, and her lover only in her dreams.

“Leena...” Alex ’s voice was hushed and silent in pain. “Please let me try?”

“No, the string of my existence is short. I see it unfurling. Give me you.” Leena reached up and gently wiped the lines of worry and sorrow from his face.

“Did you see her? The child? Our child?” Alex closed his eyes and nodded. Khivar’s brutal experiment. He wanted his own Eminent One. He wanted the genetics, and when all else failed he used science.

With Leena’s egg and Alex ’s sperm he artificially created their offspring. A foundling. Alex warned him that the very genetics that allowed his body to be altered made it impossible for him and those like him to reproduce without lethal consequences.

“A girl...she was beautiful, Leena. She looked like you.”

Leena just nodded and buried her head into his chest. “How long?”

“Just shy of a cycle.”

Alex felt the pain again that he had felt as he watched his daughter die. She had been carried by a surrogate mother, born, and then he slowly and painfully watched her die. Her lifespan was barely a year and then gone. She was born an Eminent One, and what Khivar couldn’t understand or wouldn’t understand was that she was crushed by the energies of the universe, the screaming voices echoing in her small infant head. Those same voices rose as a large crashing rush in Alex ’s head, but as an adult, he controlled them.

“Show me!”

“No. It is too much. You are already sick and dying. Do not let this be your last memory...her death.”

“Then give me another. Give me you.”

Alex looked down at his mate, or the closest he had to one. “It is forbidden.”

“By who? There is no one left but us and our last brother. Our child was crushed by this very existence.” Her hand grasped him hard. “Please, Alex . I need to see her, to see you, to touch you. When I go, the rip will be even larger, and all I am will be shared by the two remaining. But Alex , I think I can transfer my power to you...now, at the edge of my step into the void. It will save the tearing of space, and it will make you the strongest.”

“I have no wish for more power! My only desire has been for you, only you...as long as I remember.”

She reached up and gently kissed his lips, as she had so many times before.

“I know. But Alex , Khivar knows that there is only one way to create creatures such as we, that there is only one way to meld his own genetics into the Great Understanding...he is looking for them.”

“I have them. Almost half a cycle.”

“You felt it? You knew he was looking?”

Alex just nodded. His genetics, and even Kathleen’s were already too dangerous to mess with, but Khivar could control the genetics of their former bodies, or those found within their bloodlines. All the worlds of their former selves were gone, all their people massacred by Khivar’s own shortsightedness. He had purposely searched out and destroyed all the members of each Eminent One's family in order to protect himself during the war from any new Ones being created to stand against him.

Now the only way Khivar could add the genetics of a potential Eminent One into his genetic soup was to find an existing relation to one of them. When he thought there were none available, he tried to create his own with Alex and Leena’s reproductive cells. Now he knew differently. He knew.

“Pierce? Pierce told Khivar my sisters are alive?” Alex felt the betrayal to his soul. His brother, one of them, betrayed him to Khivar.

“Yes. He told and Khivar gave me the poison to get me to divulge where they are.”

Alex frowned. “You did not know. No one does, but me.”

“I know. It became apparent to Khivar, too. He let me go, but he was worried what my death means. He soon changed his mind and sent his troops. He is afraid I would warn you.”

Leena ran her head into his chest, feeling better as his hands moved over her back rubbing it in comfort. Alex . Her mate. Forbidden and lost to her, but not anymore. She was dying.

“Show me. Please, Alex . I need to know.” Alex just shook his head no.

“It will hurt you. There is no reason to know.”

“I just want to see her, just before I die, so I can find her on the other side of the Great Understanding. Please?” She leaned up and took his head in her hands and she kissed him. He moaned in her mouth. Once, only once they had touched, and even then it overwhelmed them to the point of oblivion.

“Leena.”

“Please. Please, my love.” A tear ran down her cheek. He was the only thing she had ever loved, and the only thing she was ever denied. Until they took her child, and she was denied that as well.

Leena smiled a sad smile up at him. "Do you see me yet, Alex ? Can you feel me?"

The jagged edges smoothed out as his life partner crystallized before him. His partner, his friend, his conscience, his lover through the labyrinth of his mind melded to hers practically since his birth as an Eminent One, his shoulder, his brace, his soul and yes, his other half. His - heart.

"I see you and feel you, Leena."

"Well, it's about fucking time. Do I come to you or will you meet me?"

"I distinctly remember that one time we touched, that we met in the middle of the Great Understanding, that place where time and space had no real dimension."

"Sure, sure and doesn't Mohammed always come to the mountain?" She kissed his neck. “Come to me. I am open for you.”

Alex managed not to rush into her mind, but to slowly meld and flow within her thoughts.

When he reached the part of her that touched him to the core, he stopped. It was too much, too intense. He could live there trapped in eternity, trapped in a moment that ran into forever. It was why it was forbidden. But she was like a perfect gem, bright and seductive, and so beautiful that he felt humble before her.

Leena had moved in the bed and was smiling at him, and damn, Alex was suddenly nervous.

"Are you afraid?"

"Yes." Alex held back and looked at her critically. “I am afraid that I will not be able to go on without you, that you will die, and I will be alone.”

"Alone? Would I ever leave you?" Kathleen sat up a little wincing in pain, but ignoring it. “I plan to embed myself in you forever, and you will never be alone. I want to give you my power, my connection, and maybe even more. Please, Alex . I don’t know if it will work, but it is all I am.”

Alex nodded and connected to her again. She gasped as she saw their daughter, the beautiful child that never had a chance, and then her sadness raced through her like the poison in her veins as she felt her child’s death. She held Alex so tightly, and suddenly she was moving in him, joining to him mentally without connecting physically. It was impossible. An Eminent One couldn’t be breached without an invitation, and opening. But Leena was so much more to him, and she found her home inside him.

“She was beautiful.”

"She was.” Alex never felt want so deeply as he felt for the mother of his child. “But I have reconsidered. I have decided that you should seduce me."

"I am - up for that." She smiled at him though the tears. Who was to stop them? To forbid what they were?

“So am I.”

"Why yes you are." Alex chuckled at her pun as her hand moved over his body.

Suddenly he was serious again.

“Let me take you to my ship! Let me try to save you.”

“It is too late for that. Save me this way. Give me you, and let me give you all that I am.”

Alex took the required steps to bring him up close and personal with her. He reached out with one finger and trailed it down Leena's right arm, enjoying the silky skin and strong feminine muscles, feeling them flex as his finger moved over them.

He enjoyed the small bumps of pleasure that erupted on her skin at his touch. His finger ended its journey at her open hand, resting against her palm. Slowly, he let his other fingers join with Leena’s. He knew her so well from their dreams.

"I have never been in love before, Leena. Until now. Until you. It was always you."

Fingers still clasped, her left hand came up and she ran it down Alex 's side, ending on his hip, under the waistband of his pants.

"You love me, Alex ?"

"Yes. I love you."

"And you know who I am?"

"I know."

"And do you know who you are?"

Alex smiled that smile and nodded. "I know. I am your husband....."

"...boy toy."

Alex laughed at the seriousness of her regard.

Leena just enjoyed the view and the sound. It was nice to see him smile, to see him forget that there would be an end to this.

When Alex had calmed a bit, he choked out, "A bit old to be anyone's boytoy."

"Husband," she whispered against his lips. Alex moaned deeply his agreement.

"Yes." He said back, huskily as the kiss deepened.

Leena pushed Alex ’s flat on the bed. She had been planning this moment for days, but now that it was here, all ideas, fantasies and visions flew out the window. Suddenly what she thought she'd wanted, was something entirely different. She had searched for him and his ship for days, hoping to find them before it was too late, and now all she wanted was to live a lifetime with him.

Leena straddled Alex 's thighs and with one finger, tipped his chin up. "I promise not to hurt you...much." Alex ’s eyes darkened in anticipation.

Leena couldn't have asked for a better declaration. Her arms moved up and around the solid mass that represented her love and she tugged him in close. They kissed, their first kiss that was free of worry. It was full of them, and all the things that making love to a man can give a woman, and it hit them at the same time. It was the first time for both of them really, since never before were they permitted to love physically. All their previous times had been mentally done.

His rough, demanding lips on hers, his tongue, as strong as her own and just as demanding, the stubble, grazing her cheek, the rasping of her voice as she begged him for more, the delicious sound of the low, guttural moans of Alex , the sheer strength of the muscles that moved arms and legs, that alternately pulled and pushed and demanded....

....nothing could feel this good, would ever feel this good again, except this man, this body. She quickly removed her clothes and his.

His hands moved around to grasp her ass as their bodies joined and she almost came at the first touch. Hard and muscular. Her own body resisting at first, and yet yielding to his touch. He kneaded her body, holding it firm and moved her over him, at the pace he wanted, and he felt the immediate response and smiled into the kiss.

Leena pulled away, her breath coming in short pants and she gave Alex a lopsided grin and hissed out, "You tease..." As he rolled her hips and thrust up harder into her. He gave her the feeling that because she was on top, she was in control, but it was obvious that he was orchestrating this seduction.

Somehow, that energized them both. The bed was suddenly full of two writhing bodies, clothing ripped, hands fumbling for stronger purchase, hands tossed out to land on the bed gripping the sheets, and each other's hand just within reach.

Thighs tightened against him as his hard cock moved inside her, carving a place for itself, fingers sought out the silky hardness, made themselves familiar, listened for the sounds that told them they were doing it right, and finally, somehow, Leena ended up on her back, with Alex above her pumping into her, moving steadily as his head bent to take her mouth in another kiss.

Alex ’s body blanketed the body beneath him, rubbing and sliding, enjoying the trembling muscles, wanting to give this to Leena, astounded that it would be his place to do so.

The fear and nervousness Leena had almost immediately experienced as Alex covered her body, and she lost contact with her own body, was quickly replaced as she acknowledged that this was Alex . And God, how she wanted this from him.

But she was in no way prepared for when it actually happened. Minutes of loving, of stroking, of reaching up and capturing Alex 's mouth, of Alex 's fingers in her hair, rubbing her scalp, teasing her ears, and lapping at her throat, suckling at her neck feeling the vibration of her moans, then his tongue, moving under a mound of hair, resting at her nape, savoring the taste, then down and across her shoulders, her breasts, even tickling her, teasing her, relaxing her, loving her.

The kisses at the side of her neck even as hands held her ass, tiny words of love, whispered in her ear, her lobe captured, tugged, nipped. Fingers entering her as his hand moved down to where their bodies joined finding her clit. It was just this heat, this love, this physical burst of passion.

One of Alex 's hands slipping below her, under her back, stroking the long lean lines of her, as his mouth found her breasts, taking a nipple in his mouth tweaking the silver loop threaded through her left nipple and the rush of words from her mouth, words urging Alex to hurry, to hurry....to hurry....

And then, her hips were lifted, she helped, and Alex was there, there and moving in, faster, harder, deeper and there was pain, but it quickly moved to a good pain, and she wanted more, and she thrust back......

......and Alex filled her.

Dear God.

Dear God forever.

She gripped the sheets, fingers digging in as he lifted her body, as she asked herself how she could have more, how she could take more, but have she did, take she did. She took all of him, everything he had, and everything he was and she gave it back to him in two-fold transferring her power to him. All of it.

Great Understanding, cosmic wakening.

The fullness, the incredible - bulk - that was Alex 's penis, full, hard, aching and inside of her.

Filling her, and she could feel it, feel it all the way to her stomach. Pierced. Hot.

She rose higher, pushing her body up into his, as his upper body was now resting on his forearms. He pushed. Back. Hard.

" Alex !"

He did it again. Alex slammed into her. God Yes...

Slammed in, all the way in, over and over again, and she continued to push up, over and over again.

A hand. His mouth. A touch. A continuous stroke into her body.

She screamed his name and came. In that moment, she gave it all up. Her energy, her power, her very essences. Her stomach mated to his, and the heat of energy seared his flesh, and he screamed in pain as the transfer melded them together. He felt full, too full. She moved into his body like an invasion ripping away his skin, and them slowly the pure energy evenly dispersed into his body as if it had always been his own.

Lulled and silent, they rested together until he could feel her kissing him, telling him that she loved him. It was the fading of her life that he sensed. No, even poisoned, without help, she should’ve been able to hold off the poison for awhile, maybe even a year. But he could feel her slipping away.

“What did you do?” his voice was a whisper of horror. He just found her, and to lose her immediately was too cruel.

“Shhh, it is alright. It was meant to be this way.”

It was suicide. She moved all her energy into him, melded into his body and releasing her hold on life. The emptiness left a void that the poison was filling too fast. Her remaining time was short.

“Leena.” He couldn’t understand this. Giving up, walking away from life, even for a second or a moment.

“I choose. Not Khivar. I choose when my life is over and how. I will not allow him to dictate even a moment or aspect, and I will not allow my energy to be dispersed to a traitor. I give it to you, so you are now twice as strong as Pierce. Use it to do good, to help those who might defeat Khivar and bring balance back to this Universe.” Her voice was fading, almost too tired to continue. He could feel the coldness stealing her away. “ Alex , there is someone...I promised to meet. That is your task now...fail me not.”

“Leena, please God, do not leave me!” Alex ran his hands over her body trying to warm her, using his powers in concentration, but he couldn’t change the course of her death.

“I am already with you...and I will never leave. What I gave you is a gift, for both of us. To the Darron system, there you will find the next step in the journey.” Leena pulled him close. “It is important. There you will also find the Saratoga...the ship of cities with countless treasures. It was one of Khivar’s collector ships, taken down. The wreckage is also in the Darron system, and you can use it as a cover.”

He stayed with her until the light in her eyes faded. Standing, he gathered her back in her clothing and cloak, and walking towards the wall he stepped through a corridor of energy that warped the physical world, transporting them to the outskirts of the settlement in a flash, a wrinkle in time. On a cliff high and jutting he found a stone altar, and there he laid her at her final resting place. With a movement of energy and without a flicker of his hand, he set her body on fire.

~~~ Michael watched the transport making its way back to the Shiva. The smaller runabout was a clean fast transport ship, and Michael resisted the urge to run down and check it for scratches and markings. Alex had been gone almost a day, and about twelve hours previously Michael came this close to taking another transport to go find the man, or at least retrieve his runabout. But a sense of well-being hit him, and he backed off and waited.

Max suddenly stood up.

“Michael, take the Conn.” Without looking back, Max left the Bridge.

Michael just frowned. Damn Eminent Ones! They always climbed in your brain and issued instructions. Michael sat down in Max’s command chair and shared a look with the helm officer. He just shrugged. Yeah, whatever.

Max met Alex in the open flight deck of the shuttle bay. The man looked...haggard, but somehow different. Max stepped back from him as he joined his side. The presence...it was powerful.

“I need you to take us to the Darron system, maximum speed.” Alex said quietly.

Alex started to walk away. Max put out his hand and stopped him.

“What’s in the Darron system?” Max gripped Alex harder. The man’s body was shaking, and the sensation of energy was racing under his hands.

“The Saratoga.”

Alex refrained from telling Max the real reason, but he was too tired to explain, and the increase of body energy from Leena was leaving him weak. He needed rest. Time to let his body absorb and balance to the new strength, and time to mourn.

“The Ship of Cities.”

Max stood shocked. During the war, Khivar had plundered and stolen numerous worlds’ private artifacts, relics and crown jewels. He removed their immense wealth and stockpiled it on a huge freighter ship that never made its final destination. It had been helplessly caught in a battle between the Imperials and the Royals, and barely made a jump through hyperspace to escape. Where it went down no one knew. Except Alex , it appeared.

“The amount of credits...the wealth.” Max was stunned almost into silence. The amount of salvage credits they could command to return so many worlds' lost treasures was too staggering to comprehend.

“There will be no selling, only offers of gifts.” Alex would accept whatever a world could afford for their lost treasure from that ship, and whatever it was, it would be enough.

Max stood still and looked at his boss, his partner, and his friend. After three years they had developed a quiet relationship and friendship. But this Alex was suddenly different from the man who left to go down to Rygel V.

“What? Alex ...”

“We will return each and every treasure to their rightful owner. The spoils of war will not bloody us. Those worlds lost or destroyed, their treasures will stay here until I can make arrangements for them. Perhaps a museum or memoriam in order that the identity of their people will not be lost to all time.”

Max nodded. His world’s treasure were there, stolen by Khivar. His people were still enslaved under Khivar’s rule, as was the known universe. They weren’t in a position to pay a large bounty to have their prized possessions returned just so Khivar could come in again and take them again.

Alex slapped Max on the shoulder in a friendly fashion, and with affection.

“Do not worry. We are picking up a new client as well. Prepare guest quarters with additional heaters if possible, and have Sean convert the back hidden bays for the treasures that survived the crash of the Saratoga. We will need to keep them hidden in case Khivar’s people search the ship.”

Max body stiffened as did his face, and his scar appeared frighteningly stark in contrast to the rest of his skin. “They wouldn’t dare.”

“Oh, they would. Khivar is seeing the end to his dream of a world cleansed of genetic impurities.”

“They wouldn’t touch the Shiva. She is a protected ship, that of an Eminent One.”

Alex just shrugged as he and Max walked towards his quarters.

“New rules. Khivar knows that I hold what he wants...what he needs. He will not stop until he achieves his goal.” Alex stumbled and Max caught him.

“ Alex ?” Max looked at the man. He looked drained.

Alex just straightened himself and looked reassuringly at Max. “I am fine. I need to sleep, to rest and let my body balance itself with the Universe.”

Max frowned in concern.

“But, there is something you can do for me, Max.”

Max waited.

“Open up a new set of quarters on my deck, joined to my room and large enough for two to live comfortably. I need to remove my guests from my quarters for awhile. I need to be alone.” Alex didn’t bother to mention that he needed to hide them even more than he already did.

“Your guests?” Max’s curiosity got the better of him. Not servant or slaves?

“Come with me.” Alex led Max to his quarters.

Michael was going to be disappointed that he missed the opportunity to actually see the inside of Alex ’s quarters. And once inside, Max knew that Michael was going to be more than just disappointed. He was going to be angry that the opportunity was missed. Women. Two to be exact, both equally beautiful. They were twins.

“ Alex !” They both said at once as they quickly went to Alex and hugged him. Then suddenly, they both seemed to become aware of Max.

Max stood still under there regard. Twins, yes. But after physical appearance, all resemblance stopped. One stood tall and serene with a quiet gentleness to her, along with a spark of stubbornness. The other appeared more guarded, with a hint of mischief and boredom about her mouth and eyes.

“Max, my sisters, Lonnie and Isabel.”

The girls looked at him with open regard as Alex indicated each of them. Lonnie was the mischievous bored one. Isabel was the haughtier, serene, almost regal one.

“ Alex , what is going on?” Isabel asked quietly, searching her brother’s face for his sudden admittance to their existence.

“Khivar knows you both live.”

Both girls stepped back in alarm. Khivar. He was the monster under the bed, the story that parents told their children to make them behave. Khivar wanted them so he could turn them into Alex , or something close to Alex and the Others. The personal cost Alex had paid was immeasurable, and both girls knew that once altered, their lives would end.

“How?” Lonnie’s tone was angry almost in a snarl. “How can that be? Our incredibly smart brother removed all traces of our very existence. How can he know?”

Max watched them.

“A traitor. Pierce. Pierce told him.”

Lonnie’s whole body did a shake. “Pierce? You lie! He wouldn’t!”

Isabel looked at her sister with pity. Pierce. Lonnie’s lover. She closed her eyes to the wave of anger and disbelief pouring off her twin’s body.

“It was Kathleen! It had to be! That bitch. She hated us, both Isabel and me. It had to be her.”

“Kathleen is dead. Khivar killed her with poison. Mescarlini, the drug of truth.

She came to warn us. He killed an Eminent One, so he has to be desperate...”

“The drug of truth! He gave it to her and she told! Not Pierce.” Lonnie shook her head against the possible betrayal. “It was that sniveling piece of trash, your wife wannabe. She told. She betrayed us and in turn, you.”

Max barely blinked as he watched the tall blonde woman’s face turn red, and she grabbed at her neck gasping in breath. Alex ’s eyes were violent and angry.

Isabel grabbed him. “God! No, Alex . Release her. She didn’t mean it. She’s just angry. Please?” Isabel looked at her twin who was starting turn blue under the lack of oxygen. “ Alex !”

Suddenly Lonnie fell to the ground coughing and wheezing, pulling air into her lungs at an alarming rate.

“I have all of Leena’s memories, and all her energy in my body. It was Pierce.

He is with Khivar now. I am sorry. But, Leena is dead, and she gave up her life to warn and save yours. You will not speak her name in my presence again. My wife is dead.” Lonnie looked at him in shame and Isabel with compassion and sadness. Alex and Kathleen. They never had a chance.

Alex looked at Max. “Get their quarters ready. I need to be alone.”

Max nodded and left the room. Isabel watched him leave before turning back to her brother. Six months ago, he had taken them from a protected world onto the Shiva so he could have them near. The entire Council of Eminence knew where the twins had been. After Khivar slowly killed all relatives of the known Eminent Ones, Lonnie and Isabel had been sent to this special world with a cloaking field, and there they lived in exile for over ten years through the war. Their only contact had been other Eminent Ones, and in their early adult years Lonnie had fallen in love with Pierce. The betrayal was crushing. Alex lost a brother and his wife, and Lonnie her lover.

“Go pack. Your quarters will still be connected to mine, but I need to raise a special field around it in case we are boarded and searched.” The field would serve as a cloaking field to remove the patterns of life. He walked away and stood looking out at the stars with his hands clasped behind his back.

“ Alex , I’m sorry that...” Isabel interrupted Lonnie with a shake of her head. Now wasn’t the time. Alex ’s body was glowing, resonating anger. He was barely controlling it.

“Let’s go pack.” Isabel looked at her sister and smiled slightly. “Think, Lon, we finally get a change of scenery! We need to decorate.”

Lonnie nodded and went to go pack her belongings. Isabel turned back to Alex and sighed. Alone. He was always alone. With Leena gone, he would be even lonelier.

Their love had been forbidden, but their connection was strong enough that they could feel each other across a universe.

Isabel went to her brother, and hugged him from behind resting her head on his back. Suddenly he turned and swept her up in a full hug, and she felt the shaking of his body. Her beautiful face became marred in a frown as she felt his raw power moving against her. Kathleen. She could still sense Kathleen inside of Alex .

“She didn’t mean to be so cruel.”

Alex sighed and pulled away from his sister. “I know.” He looked out at the stars again. “I know.”

Isabel stood uncertain whether to stay or go, but he looked remote, too far away to touch. She quickly squeezed his shoulders and then left the room.

“It’s hard for them too, you know.”

Alex just nodded. Going into his private room, he laid down on the bed. He should shower before he slept, but he couldn’t stand the thought of her scent and the warmth of her touch to be washed from his body.

~~~ “The Darron system? Dammit, Max, that system was decimated by the war! Nothing grows or lives there anymore. It wasn’t blown into non-existence, but it should’ve been.”

Max just nodded. He remembered the day when Khivar blew holes into the helicon layer of that’s system’s sun. It created negative helium wells and hydrogen leaked from the star’s field, damping its energy and progressing it thousand of eons towards its death. All the outer planets lost the necessary energy for survival, and became large ice planets unable to sustain life. Soon the closer planets cooled too, changing their entire ecosystems. Mass death of species occurred. The sun would be dead in another hundred some years. The only planet that could hold life was the closest to the dying sun, and even there half the year its orbit took it too far from the sun to sustain life during its winters.

“Well plot the course, and lay it steady to helm. Looks like we have a meeting with destiny in the dead Darron system.”

The rest of the crew looked at their Captain, and quickly went back to work. Max wasn’t a man that spoke much, or explained himself. He only required his crew follow his orders without question and to do their jobs. In return, he protected them fiercely, refusing to abandon or leave any of them behind.

The only person who challenged the Captain was his twin and First Officer, Michael. But even then, Michael was unwavering in his loyalty to his brother. Max depended on Michael’s sheer stubbornness to keep them all alive, and in all these years they had stood side-by-side, Michael never let him down.

“Fix the extra staterooms. The guest we’re looking for in the Darron system needs a large set of rooms, and Alex wants extra heating power to the suite turned on, plus the replicators.”

Everyone looked at Max suddenly. The Shiva was a large armory battleship, renovated to gut her lower decks for cargo and salvage. Her landing bays had been altered, increasing them by almost double her regular compliment. To keep the running speeds as high as possible, half the ship was shut off until needed. All crew members shared tight quarters, including the Captain and his brother. Replicators were voted an unnecessary expenditure of energy and were used almost exclusively in Sick Bay or when an emergency occurred.

This guest was special.

“And the extra staterooms connected to Alex ’s?”

“They’re to be duplicated to Alex ’s stateroom in all regards.” Max nodded to his helmsman. “You have the Conn.” Looking at his brother, he motioned for him to follow him out of the Bridge.

“Maxwell?”

“Sisters. They are Alex ’s sisters. I’m not sure if they will finally join the crew in the mess, or whether they will continue to remain isolated. But, Michael...” Max waited until Michael stopped skipping next to him. “Don’t make a fool of yourself over them. Alex might not appreciate it too much having you mooning over and after his sisters.”

Michael frowned. “Hey! I’m not that bad.”

Max just rolled his eyes. Yeah, yeah he was. Being left unbonded and footloose made Michael very isolated, and he craved affection, a bond. The only bonds he was able to make tended to be sexual, and with all the time they spent in space moving from one job to another, even those were too few and far between. Max tempered how soon he needed to stop for shore leave and time off for his crew by his brother’s bad attitude and hyped-up horniness.

The only other person worse than Michael was Sean. Sometimes they were neck and neck in the race to get laid, but one truth remained. In a real race between them with only one possible unattached female, Kyle usually snuck in with his smile and took the prize. They couldn’t beat Mr. Empathy with his two solid hearts exuding charm and wit. Michael couldn’t seem to understand why pointing at his dick and wiggling his eyebrows suggestively didn’t bring women running.

They entered main engineering, and Max spotted his Chief Engineer immediately. Sean was one thing. He was a man’s man. His entire department hung on his every order and command, and Max suspected it was because more than half of them owed Sean their entire credits for five years lost in poker games. Sean never collected. He just liked to win.

“Sean.”

“Cap, got the specs you asked for. The new open quarters are going to be a problem. I don’t have the heaters needed, and the replicator can’t give me a unit big enough to heat the forward compartment. Best I can do is leaving it at an even day temperature, and not drop it at night with the other units. The heaters will compensate, but not by much.”

Max nodded. At night Shiva’s normal operating systems were powered down, and it was a cold sleep. It conserved energy and allowed their power systems to cycle through self diagnostics with just a skeleton crew watching them.

Michael frowned looking at the panel of schematics. “Couldn’t you reroute the power relays and take it off the main junction, giving the rooms their own internal controls?”

“Looked into that. It would take rewiring three decks and two subdecks. I can’t splinter the junction except at a power node. We moved them all around when we created the new landing bays and storage areas. Best I could do is a reroute from hydroponics, but they are pushing power quota already on the fresh food supplies, and decreasing their power would threaten the plants.”

Max shook his head. They couldn't risk their fresh food gardens. The crew had voted for cramped living quarters, and low energy heating at night to allow for the internal gardens that fed them fresh vegetables. The only other option would have been to live off replicated food, and even that was a costly energy use.

“I don’t know who the guest is, but do what you can. Next main port, try to find us some individual space heaters. They’ll just have to cope until then.”

“Aye, Cap.” Sean looked at Michael and Max. “Can I borrow the crusty one for some help? I’ve got three coolant leaks, and the third deck landing bay is down. I could use some extra help.”

Max nodded. “Yeah, keep him. The busier the better, otherwise he’d be outside the new stateroom embarrassing me to hell and back.”

“Hey!” Michael resented that. Though he already planned to take flowers by just as a warming present. Nothing more. Maybe. Just a look-see.

Sean laughed and watched Max disappear from the room. Hooking Michael’s arm, his best friend, and partner in crime, he demanded the real scoop.

“What’s up?”

“ Alex ’s been hiding girls!”

Sean’s eyes got that narrow gleam. “Girls...as in more than one?” Laughing, Sean led Michael off with him to check on the down landing bay. “That Eminent One is an animal. I thought they were all virgins. But two? At once?”

“Put it back in your pants, short-eyes. They’re his sisters.”

“Hey, I’m legal.” Sean looked at Michael. “Sisters? Damn. That complicates things.”

Michael had to agree. Messing with a friend’s sister was taboo, unless it was leading somewhere. They were Attilaans, so breeding outside their race was unheard of, so that just left sexual alliances and quick relationships, but nothing permanent. Despite Max’s worries, Michael wasn’t planning on moving into the women’s rooms with charm blazing, and birth control in hand, not that birth control would work. He respected Alex too much for that. He just wanted to look.

His fantasy reserves were low, and this looked like potential material.

“So what do they look like? Are they all Eminent like Alex ?”

Michael just shrugged, taking a diagnostic tool from Sean and scanning the bay’s internal sensors.

“No clue. Maxwell said they were twins, and beautiful.”

“Beautiful? Mustn’t look like Alex too much then.”

“Yeah. I hear long blond hair.”

Sean smiled big. “Damn, I’m already in love! Remember that last bay whore I tangled in the sheets with?”

“The one with the third boob, and green dredlocks?” Michael asked stopping his repairs.

“Yeah.”

“Scary,” Michael said grimacing.

Sean just laughed. “I’m saying...”

~~~

Max rolled over at the sound of his bedside com system calling him. Michael just grunted from his side of the room, and turned in his bed to cover his head with his pillow.

“We’ve entered the Darron system, Sir.”

Max acknowledged, “On my way.” Max sat up on the side of the bed and rubbed his face, fingering his scar. Standing, he quickly went into the bathroom and washed his face to wake himself.

“Come on, M! Wake up. We’ve gotta go.” Michael just grunted and refused to move. “I know you’re awake.”

“No you don’t, brother. Definitely asleep here.” Max just laughed at Michael. Same old, same old. Michael always clung to bed as long as possible, and when awake, he tried to stay awake as long as possible. He was the walking example of inertia. When at rest, he remained at rest, and when in motion, he stayed in motion.

“Suit yourself. I understand Alex is bringing his sisters with him to look at the system.”

Max chuckled under his breath when Michael was suddenly at his right arm following him to the Bridge. The night crew was still running normal operating systems, and the Bridge officer ordered all day Bridge functions online when Max and Michael entered the Bridge.

“Captain and Commander on deck.”

Michael just smirked at that. He pulled some night shifts. Supposedly it was the turning of command to the Captain to announce his arrival, and it sounded official announcing the Captain entering the Bridge, but actually it was a way to remind the crew that they needed to be on alert. Time to put away the reading material, and the cards.

Max took his chair, and Michael took his security and armory station, checking his sensors and his weapons. Moving his sensors to maximum, he scanned for Saratoga remains. The downed freighter had never sent out a distress or homing beacon, but its warp core should be generating a signature radioactive field even now, years after it went down.

“I got it, Cap.” Michael double checked his sensors. Thank God. First planet. He hadn’t been looking forward to a salvage operation on a dead ice planet.

“First planet? Tell me it’s the first planet.”

“It is.” Max mumbled thanks under his breath to that which was holy. He hated ice salvage as much as Michael. They had salvaged materials from asteroids and space anomalies in the past, and the salvage was always fraught with perils.

“We got lucky, but just. Linius VI is just now passing into its winter orbital. We’re just catching it before it becomes harsh and brutal. It should still be a cold son-of-a-bitch, or at least cold enough to pearl the nipples on a large breasted bitch.”

Alex entered the Bridge. “Always a way with words, Michael.”

Michael just snorted. “Yeah, took top marks for it in school. My instructor’s comments were always about how descriptive I was.”

Alex laughed. “I'm sure.” Looking at the system they were entering Alex turned to talk to Max. “How long, Max?”

“We’re twelve clicks on the outside. Running speed is half impulse.” Max turned in his chair as Alex took his favorite seat equipped with scanners and science sensors.

Michael looked up from his sensors and systems to notice that Alex was alone. No girls. Meeting his evil twin’s eyes, Michael just glared. Lying bastard.

Max turned his seat around with a smirk.

Alex watched as they slowly moved through the dead system, scanning for lifeforms and the wreckage. As they came upon the first planet, he felt it. The entire view screen suddenly increased in intensity, and the world seemed to bleed into a blackness that suddenly was too brilliant to behold.

Alex was impressed. It wasn’t Pierce, but the generating energy and power of their new guest was impressive for a non-Eminent.

“Captain, I’ve got a lifeform.” Max turned to look at his front helmsman and nodded. Both Michael and Alex quickly rechecked their sensors and found the same energy signature.

Michael swore under his breath and then aloud. “The lifeform is at the wreckage.”

The entire Bridge just sighed. They were awarded credits based on their position in the crew, with bonuses if they were on shift at the time of acquisition. This was big. But rules were rules and in salvage, the first rule was finders keepers. The first person to locate a wreck was the owner, and this wreckage had an owner since the person below already found it. The Ship of Cities had just passed right out of their hands.

“That’s our new passenger. I need a scanning team, engineer and Medical in case our guest needs medical treatment.” Alex noticed the dejected crew members.

“Rest easy. This person is our newest client. The job is a big one with many rewards, and with owning the wreckage to the Ship of Cities, they can afford our asking price.”

Alex headed for the door, ignoring the suddenly bright faces of the working crew. Max motioned for Michael to go with Alex , as he called for other crew members for the landing party, including Sean and Kyle.

“Sam, scan the surrounding stars with sensors on maximum spread. I want to know if we’ve got company.”

“Aye, Cap.”

Max pushed his communication link. “Michael, I want your men on full com. No one is to wander off field more than a ten haul.”

“Aye, Cap.” Michael looked at his assembling team. Max was right. Pirates and space dogs monitored salvage ships like Shiva, following them to possible huge rewards and then attacking, trying to relieve the rightful owners to salvage of their haul. Max didn’t want to lose anyone, so he ordered them within an easy distance of their transport.

The scanning party would map the wreckage site, check for radiation leaks, and secure the area for recovery teams. Michael took his pilot seat and prepped the engines for space drop. His co-pilot was Mallechi.

“Let’s do this clean, Mal.” The large man next to Michael just nodded and chuckled. After three years in Michael’s presence and right hand in the runabouts, he never knew them to do anything clean. Michael looked into the back deck as the loading doors were secured, and he was given the high sign of all secured. Michael laughed and punched it. He loved the feel of power and control of the ship under his hands.

“Right, Michael. Frosty and clean. She’s parvo on the left, and I’ve got shakes and shimmies to the right.” Mallechi checked his sensors. “She already icing in the higher stratosphere.” Michael just nodded swearing. It was going to be cold.

“We’ve got gimbal lock,” Michael looked back at the strapped in crew. “Hold on tight, boys, this is going to be a shaky ride. We’re riding a ice storm in.”

Kyle pulled his seat strap tight, and looked over at Sean. The man was asleep. Reaching over, Kyle pulled his friend’s belt tight, and pulled out some special gum for nausea. The damn shaking took out his stomach every time. It wasn’t his stomach. It was everyone around him fighting the motion sickness. Taking a piece, he passed it to his right, and then left around Sean.

Kyle didn’t bother to wake, Sean. The man had a cast-iron stomach. The only thing that ever bothered Sean was losing a hand of poker while holding a straight flush, three tiers high.

Kyle and the others reached up and grabbed the hanging straps to steady themselves as the runabout turned sharply to the side. Ignoring Michael’s cursing as an indication of their situation, they closed their eyes and rode it out.

“Mal, what we got on the right airlifts? This crate is shaking loose.”

“Injectors are frozen. I can’t move them. We’re a floating can.” Mal checked his systems, and pressed the emergency release. No response. “Um, Michael this tub’s going to crash.”

Michael just smiled and shook his head no. Mal looked at him sharply as the man started humming under his breath with a smile on his face. Crazy bastard.

“It will be a hard landing, but we’ll make it easy.” Michael called out orders as he navigated around a rising wall of ice. They punctured the lower atmosphere straight into the eye of an ice storm. Michael checked his consol and beacon markers. They were almost over the site.

“Balls to the walls, boys! We’re hitting turf hard.”

Michael watched the field of ice coming up fast. His surface was closing in less than 200 meters when the cross winds hit them. Pulling back, he compensated, hitting the ice shell and cracking it at an angle as the runabout hit the full tarmac created by the original landing of the Saratoga. They were down, but forward momentum was too great, and they slid forward.

Mal cursed and assumed the crash position as piles of debris were coming closer. They finally stopped, mere inches from the Saratoga. Mal’s one eye came open first as he clenched and swore, waiting for the grating noise of metal on metal that never came. It was Michael’s slap to his shoulder that got him moving.

“Come on, suit up in environmental gear. We haven’t all day to let you sleep.” Michael just got out of his seat and moved out of the cockpit into the forward compartment. Now that was fun.

Michael called out orders and he moved down the aisle through the men. “Full environmentals. It’s cold. Mal, de-ice the lifters, and check the heating grid. Full heat to keep her from freezing. I want an upward punch-out. Check the power coupling on number six. It got a red bus light on the way down. Pull and replace.”

Kyle checked his external monitors. “Michael, too much nitrogen in the mix. We need to use breathing units as well.”

“You heard the doc, suit 'em up.” Michael looked at Kyle and smiled. “Just as well. Breathing the cold air straight would freeze our lungs to hell and back.

Where is Alex ?”

“Here.” Alex came out of the back compartment. “I have a full section of intact hull three meters over, semi-buried in ice. I have two possible entries. Bring fire sticks. They’ll burn in nitrogen-rich atmospheres. Light a path for at least six hours.” Alex read his hand unit. “There is another ship, lightweight, and functioning about twenty off our aft bow.”

“Your friend?” Michael grabbed an extra weapon and strapped it low on his leg next to his usual pulsar handgun.

Alex settled for a moment, and then nodded. “Yes. But they do not know who we are, so be prepared for conflict. Approach with caution. I am getting a life reading, but it is weak.”

“How long were they waiting?”

Alex just shrugged. “No idea. Let us go.” Alex looked back to make sure Kyle was coming. Sean packed his gear. He would’ve stayed with the runabout if there was any real damage since transport out was the most important, but they needed him to possibly power up remaining systems on the Saratoga.

Michael was the first outside. They were close to the large hull of the once great Saratoga. Connecting a support line to the side of the runabout, Michael moved towards the ship with his men coming out and attaching to the line. The outside area was white everywhere. The blowing winds and ice was making visibility almost zero.

Reaching the entrance, he couldn’t open the hatch. Using a small explosive charge, he blew it as the rest caught up with him. Attaching the support line to an inner structure, Michael unhooked his safety attachment and entered the structure.

It was dark and cold with the sound of creaking metal bending under the weight of the ice and wind. Michael reached into his side pocket and pulled out a fire stick, striking it along his leg, he dropped it on the ground as the others followed him and spreading out.

“Kyle, how many life signs?”

Kyle looked at his monitor confused. “A lot, but the only one reading humanoid is in front of us about three stations in.”

They continued along the abandoned corridors that were steep and slanting at an alarming rate.

“Sean, hook us up a lead line. The corridor floor is slick with ice.” Sean nodded, and they slowly went down the corridor that almost had a forty-five degree angling slope. They came to a cross corridor.

“Michael, I think Main Engineering is to the right, and the war Bridge was to the left.” Michael nodded at Sean. He would know. He studied the ship when they targeted it for destruction.

“Take Engineering, and I’ll take the Bridge. See if any of the onboard systems still work. Keep an eye out for our guest.”

“Aye, Commander.” Sean motioned for half the men to follow him. Kyle stood sweeping the decks for life signs.

“Michael, the extra life signals are below us. There are many, and they’re moving fast.”

Alex came up to them. “I think they are sea creatures.”

Michael and Kyle looked at Alex with looks of inquiry.

“Sea creatures?” Kyle’s voiced sounded doubtful.

“The ship hit the surface at an angle. It’s embedded in the ice. It must have hit an underground river, and the lower decks are flooded. Over the years the natural sea creatures would have taken over the corridors and decks as part of their world.” Michael swore. “Great, there goes part of the salvage.”

Kyle just shrugged. “It’s not like it was ours anyway.”

“True, but that small ship isn’t going to be able to haul much, and they might have made a deal to have transport of the others.” Kyle acknowledged the truth to Michael’s words. Credits. Michael and Sean both understood money and bartering. It’s what kept them all alive over the last six years since the war ended.

They found the Bridge and all stood silent. Half of it was flooded, and the other half showed a blown-out deck where ice and wind was entering. Backing up, Michael sealed the door to keep the cold from seeping too far into the rest of the remaining ship. Moving back along a parallel corridor, they searched room upon room. Three rooms into it, they began to find storage bins with treasure, all of them carefully labeled.

Sean’s voice came over the com, around the same time that weapons firing could be heard from the other end of the ship.

“Michael! We’ve found our guest. They’re not happy! I’ve got three men down. I need Kyle, and some help would be nice!”

Michael and the other turn and ran towards the corridor Sean and his men took.

Along the way they split up into parallel corridors to approach Main Engineering from two ways. Alex took half, with Kyle, and Michael took the rest.

Michael’s corridor was shorted by flood waters. Sending his men to alternate corridors, Michael knew that Engineering was on the other side of the wide expanse across the flooded waters. He could hear shouting voices and weapons discharge. Taking his weapon in hand, he waded through the icy waters toward the main doors to Engineering. Along the way, he could feel things in the water brushing up against him.

A large side swipe almost knocked him off his feet as another one pushed him from the side.

“What the fuck!” Stepping fast, he quickly waded through the waters almost over his chest. Shivering and shaking, he came to the doors. Jammed. It was the movement of water that had him looking back. He could see something large approaching him fast in the water. Taking his weapon, he fired point blank at the creature. It diverted away.

Quickly reaching into his pack, Michael pulled out a set of electro-magnetic handles and attached them to the metal doors. Using all his might, he pried the doors open, trying to hurry. He could feel the swell of the water, the movement of it as the creature made another run. Wedging his body between the semi-opened doors, he turned and shot at the creature again, but not before it butted him through the doors and under the water.

The first thing Michael saw was what appeared to be a blackened object. It took mere seconds for him to realize he was looking down the mouth of a large sea creature ready to engulf him. Kicking backwards, he took his pulsar handgun and fired numerous round into the mouth of the monster. Pushing upward in the water, he headed for air as other sea creatures large and small swarmed to the now dead creature and ripped it to shreds.

Michael surfaced in Main Engineering in the flooded areas. Heading for the edges of the water, he rushed out of the water behind a main bulkhead. Looking at the situation, he scanned for their guest. The dark figure was up and to the right of his position keeping the others pinned. Moving slowly as possible and mostly because his entire body was frozen solid, he came up behind the figure and grabbed it in a stronghold. The much smaller body than his wiggled, and reached back to grab him between his legs and squeeze.

“Son of a bitch!” Michael almost doubled over from the gripping pain.

He released his captive, but not before the body grabbed him again and he felt himself being tossed over a shoulder. His brain ignored the flip, and reached for his other weapon strapped low on his leg. His other hand reached out to grab a leg and sweep his assailant off their feet at the same time.

His body hit the floor hard with a umphing sound as the air of his lungs were knocked from their depths, and the full weight of his attacker hit him in his midriff once again knocking his balls up his throat. Ignoring the pain, his watering eyes cleared enough to see a pulse laser handgun in his face, the exact same place his gun was in the unknown guest’s. They lay upon each other in a standoff, each with a finger on the triggering mechanism of their weapons.

“Michael! No!” Alex rushed forward. “Both of you! Hold it.” Alex turned and addressed the dark clothed figure in a helmet with black visor. “The Eminent One, Kathleen sent us!”

The dark figure, once coiled firm and ready to fight, moved its knees to straddle Michael’s form, not once taking the weapon from his face. It looked up at Alex quickly and noticed the obvious look of an Eminent One. Slowly it moved its firing finger from the trigger of the gun and moved off of Michael, backing up for safety, but not putting away its gun, just retreating a safer distance. Reaching up, it unfastened and removed its helmet.

Michael watched as a flood of damp hair was released from the helmet. It was damp and blond, clinging to the face and jaw line of a beautiful green-eyed woman with lips full and red. Michael’s body responded immediately despite the cold, and the flooding of his blood into his groin reminded him that he had taken two major hits to his balls and penis. Groaning, he moved to the side and rolled over, still gasping for breath. Son-of-a-green-eyed bitch.

“You’re not the One.” Her voice was sultry and husky, almost smoky and rich with tones deep and breathless.

Alex advanced slowly, his hands held out. “No. You were expecting my mate, Kathleen. She sent me in her place.”

The woman frowned, ignoring the man she had fought, and slowly stood up, holding onto a bulkhead for balance.

“She wouldn’t do that. Not unless she was dead.” The woman watched a shadow pass Alex ’s face, and she knew. “Ah.”

“I am...”

“ Alex . If you're Kathleen’s mate, then you would be Alex .” The man nodded. She holstered her weapon, and with her teeth, pulled off her gloves. Moving to Alex , she stepped over Michael and held out her hand.

“Maria.”

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