Page 32 of Her Alien Mercenaries
He looked at Zanyr, who nodded, grim faced. “Everything we told you was the truth, Jenna. I’m a chemistry teacher, like one of my fathers. My family still live on Vardaria Prime and are active members of the royal court.”
Zanyr picked up the thread of the conversation. “I am an agriculturalist. So is most of my family. What we didn’t tell you was that both of us left home not long after reaching adulthood. We were young, stubborn, and certain we wanted to do more with our lives than our family envisioned.”
“So you ran away from home?”
“I didn’t run,” Torren stated. “But I did walk away after a particularly nasty fight with two of my parents. My second father, the chemistry teacher, told me that if I wanted something else out of life, I’d have to find it on my own. He was right. I packed my things and left that night. He gave me enough money to get off the planet and made me promise to keep in touch.”
Kade whistled. “I never put it together. Vex, as in Aristol Vex?Thatfamily?”
“That family,” Torren confirmed.
“So when they…” Kade broke off.
“I’d been gone for years by then. I sent back what I could. It was enough to keep them aloft until a fair wind blew in a change of fortune.”
Jenna coughed. “That’s fascinating, and I’m going to want to hear all the details about your family later, but for now, will one of you please answer my question? Why are you so dangerous?”
Zanyr sighed. “We hadn’t met yet, but we were both on similar paths. We quickly discovered that life on our own wasn’t easy. Everything in the galaxy cost money. Neither of us had much of it and no way to earn more. There came a moment when I had to decide if I was going to go home or do something different.”
“You did something different,” Jenna breathed.
“I did. And that’s how we wound up being recruited to Starfall. We signed up within a month of each other.”
Kade leaned back in his chair. “Holyfraxx.”
“I don’t understand. What’s this Starfall?” Jenna asked.
“A crew of mercenaries with a legendary reputation,” Kade said. “One of the few mercenary bands run by and for Vardarian warriors.”
Jenna still didn’t understand. “So, you were soldiers of fortune. What’s so wrong about that?”
Torren answered with the pure and simple truth. “Fighting for honor, for glory, or for the defense of the empire are acceptable. Fighting for money is not. When we joined Starfall, we lost our citizenship and the right to go home.”
Zanyr nodded. “We were with Starfall for almost two decades. In the end, we couldn’t stomach the fighting anymore. It never stopped. Every week we had a new assignment, and some of them were…” He broke off. “You don’t need to hear about that right now.”
“I’m sorry. I can’t imagine what that would be like. But you left. And now you’re here. Why is all of this a secret?”
Torren took up the tale again. “Because we aren’t citizens of the empire anymore. We didn’t have the right to even apply for a place in the diaspora. I went to my family and begged them to intercede on our behalf. My father refused. My second father convinced my mother to help. They went to see Prince Tyran and told him about us. He offered us a place in the colony.
He turned to smile at Skye. “A decision yourmahoyendid not agree with. He interviewed us more than a dozen times on the voyage here. We convinced him that we were truly looking to leave that life behind us.”
“I can only imagine. And on behalf of the cranky son of a starbeast that he used to be, I apologize for what he must have put you through.”
Everyone laughed at that, and some of the tension left the room.
“So you’re not supposed to be here? Is that why this is a secret?”
“The empress would not be happy if she knew her brother had allowed exiles to join his colony. But the real reason is this: Not everyone here would accept us if they knew. Old ways die hard, even here. The prince and the spymaster both agreed it would be best not to tell anyone.”
Edge snorted. “Please. They want to keep your past a secret because they’re worried some of the colonists will be afraid of you. I hate to point this out, but you have several hundred cyborgs running around the colony already, and we’re so dangerous the humans wanted to destroy us in our cryo-chambers. So you were mercenaries. Big deal. If the colonists can accept us, they’ll accept the two of you. Hell, you’re even the same species.”
Everyone stared at the cyborg in shock. “What?” Edge demanded. “It’s obvious.”
Jenna let go of his and Zanyr’s hands, popped out of her chair, and ran over to hug Edge. “You’re right! And you said it so well. Thank you.”
Edge froze, his hands stiff at his sides. “What are you doing?”
“Hugging you.”
