Page 1 of Eclipse Bound
Chapter
One
Planet of Zorveya
Eclipsyionic stood at the edge of the Twilight Belt, where eternal day met endless night, and wondered, not for the first time, if their world was too fractured to heal. To the west, the gold-tinged brilliance of Solarus City shimmered. The never-setting sun refracted off crystalline spires like the sharpened edges of a weapon. Opposite them, to the east, stood the obsidian towers of Lunaris. They loomed in shadowed elegance, the blackened landscape drinking in perpetual starlight.
And between them, the neutral territory.
The Twilight Belt was a testament to compromise that neither side particularly wanted, but that both grudgingly had accepted. Eclipsyionic lived in the everlasting twilight of his home district and had spent most of his adult years in the Peacemaker Council's diplomatic center, dealing with ambassadors who liked arguing as much as breathing.
Today, he feared that compromise was failing.
Eclipsyionic had believed that if he stood in the middle long enough, he could hold both sides back from the brink. But lately, it felt like he was merely sinking between two tides that refused to retreat.
He was tired of listening to the bickering and had put in for a transfer. Hopefully, with luck, this would be his last time dealing with delegates.
Those in the Twilight Belt long predicted that war was coming between the light and dark. Drastic measures needed to be taken to stop it. The sides needed to find a way to work together.
It was a long shot, but he had tried all the other shots.
"I refuse to dim our towers," Solarestabinian snapped, his golden skin pulsing with suppressed fury. He stalked the conference room, trailing sparks of sun-fueled energy in his wake. "The light is our birthright. Our towers have stood this way for generations."
"Your birthright is blinding half of my sector and giving my people migraines," Luniaren countered from his position in the darkest corner, the hint of his silhouette barely visible against the gloom. His pale skin seemed to absorb what little light reached him, and his darker, night-adapted eyes narrowed. "The new crystal arrays are reflecting directly into Lunaris territory. It's a deliberate provocation."
Eclipsyionic suppressed a sigh. This was the fourth diplomatic incident this month, and it wasn't even halfway through the cycle. It was time to try something truly radical. He touched the data pad containing the latest proposal from Galaxy Alien Mail Order Brides Corporation, an idea so absurd it might actually work where centuries of traditional diplomacy had failed.
Absurd. Ridiculous. Desperate. All apt descriptors. And yet...
"If I may suggest—" Eclipsyionic began.
"You may not," Solarestabinian and Luniaren said in unison, before glaring at each other for agreeing on anything.
A gentle chime from the data pad drew Eclipsyionic's attention. The Galaxy Alien Mail Order Brides’ representatives were ready to deliver their proposal.
"Perhaps," Eclipsyionic said carefully, "it is time to consider alternative solutions."
"Such as?" Solarestabinian's golden skin flared brighter with his temper. "More endless talks while they skulk in their shadows plotting against us?"
"We do not skulk," Luniaren said, his voice as cold as the eternal night. "We strategize. Though I wouldn't expect someone who solves everything with brute force to understand the difference. If you had your way, we would be throwing rocks at spaceships and would have lost our mines to the Tyoe. We saved your sparkly asses."
“And if we left it to you, we’d be strategizing how to turn down the Bevlon’s hostile takeover from the bowels of one of their lava pits. We saved your inky, spineless?—”
A loud beep cut Solarestabinian off as Eclipsyionic activated the data pad's holographic display. A lurid advertisement flashed between the arguing representatives, showing smiling couples of various species embracing beneath a glittering alien logo.
"What," Solarestabinian demanded, scowling, "is this?"
"Galaxy Alien Mail Order Brides," Eclipsyionic explained. "They broker interspecies cultural exchanges."
Luniaren pushed away from his corner, moving like a liquid shadow to stare at the hologram. "You cannot be serious."
"Their success rate with difficult mating situations is interesting." Eclipsyionic scrolled through several case studies. "They recently succeeded in finding women for ash miners from Bravon?—”
Solarestabinian slashed his hand through the hologram. “We’re not interested in women who would accept a Bevlon demon into their bed.”
“He said Bravon, you stupid wormhole licker,” Luniaren snapped.
“Blackhole bait,” Solarestabinian countered.
