Page 59 of Souls of Steel
“Well done, beautiful,” Knox said. “August will be thrilled we’ve found her.”
“We couldn’t abandon her.” I reached out and patted Charybdis’s side with Sphinx’s paw. “She’s one of us too.”
“How charming. You know, I never did understand humans. How can they get so attached to monsters who do nothing but prey on them?”
Alarm erupted over me, both my own and Sphinx’s. I looked away from Charybdis, only to realize that at one point when I hadn’t been paying attention, a group of Sun-Dwellers—apsids—had surrounded us.
I’d seen a lot of depictions of the famous aliens in my mother’s books, but none of them did the creatures justice. They looked like people, except not quite. Their bodies shone too brightly for me to be able to distinguish their features. I squinted, trying to at least figure out how many of them there were. Fifteen, if my calculations were correct. They didn’t seem armed. In a fight against me and Knox, they didn’t have a chance. And yet, I couldn’t help but feel wary.
It was never a good idea to underestimate one’s opponent. What was the best thing to do in this situation? Attack outright?
“No, you can’t,”Sphinx said.“Apsids never travel alone in space. If there’s a group of them here, their ship is undoubtedly nearby and their superiors are watching. They haven’t attacked us. It’s better to wait and see what they have to say.”
I had my doubts, but Knox had yet to strike, so I followed his example. Since he had seniority, I let him speak. “We’re not here to start a fight,” he said. “One of our own was injured. We’ll retrieve her body and go.”
“Yes, the chimera,” one of the apsids said. “We saw. What a charming spectacle it was. Quite enjoyable. Not to worry. We’ll let you go in a minute. But before we do that, we have a request.”
“A request?” Knox repeated. “And what, pray tell, can we do for you?”
“We’re not interested in you, Flight Lieutenant Alexander. It’s Selene Renard we want.”
Knox let out a snarl of anger and the Cerberus’s claws flared with bright, crimson light. I launched myself into the air, ready for battle. Just the fact that they knew our names was alarming. No matter what Sphinx had said earlier, I wasn’t about to wait and see what else they had in mind.
Unfortunately, my chimera had been right in her earlier guess. A powerful blast struck the Cerberus, amputating one of his heads. I cried out in terror and anger, knowing how closely connected Cerberus was to Knox. But the Cerberus wasn’t thwarted by the wound. As the severed head dropped down to the ground, his paws began to glow again, this time absorbing the tachyons from our environment instead of emitting them.
The apsids backed away, but they didn’t seem too scared. Cerberus lunged at them again, intent on destroying them. He never got the chance to touch them. A bright light fell upon us, pinning Cerberus in place and keeping him from moving further. When I tried to rush to his aid, I found myself frozen as well. My displays, weapons and engine were working fine, but I just couldn’t move. It was as if I’d been trapped in some kind of cage or net. Fuck. This wasn’t good.
“I can’t say I don’t admire you and your pets,” the alien who’d first spoken said, “but you must be aware that we have our ways to deal with their unique skills.”
As far as I knew, our enemies didn’t possess any technology that would allow them to immobilize a chimera so utterly. That was the whole point. Apsids were fire-based beings. They couldn’t fight chimeras, not when their engines worked, at least.
Then again, it had been a long time since the war. The apsids might have created weaponry they hadn’t used before. But why use it now? Why today, against us?
Maybe this wasn’t about us at all. Maybe they were planning a bigger attack on Hyperion Base 35 and we’d happened to stumble into them. If so, we needed to warn the others. Knox and I might not survive it, but we’d at least give our fellow Chimera Warriors a fighting chance.
“I’ve already tried to reach the base,”Sphinx whispered in my head.“The com frequencies are blocked.”
Great. Just great.
Frustrated tears burned at the corner of my eyes. I didn’t want to die like this, in such a stupid way. I hadn’t even gotten to do anything. And Knox was here, just as helpless as I was. He’d have the same fate.
No, I couldn’t think like that. As long as I was still drawing breath, there was still a chance. The apsids hadn’t killed us yet and they hadn’t been hostile per se. They claimed they wanted me. Maybe I could still find a way around this. If I stalled, could Sphinx and Cerberus break out of this strange net around them? It was worth a shot.
“It seems you have us at a disadvantage,” I said. “All right. I’m listening. What do you want with me?”
“I’m glad to hear you’re finally being reasonable,” the apsid I now guessed was their leader replied. “There’s no need for any unpleasantness. Just come out from your chimera and we can deal with this in a friendly, peaceful manner.”
“You can’t be serious,” I replied. I wanted to be cooperative, but that suggestion was just ridiculous. “No offense, but I don’t find dying a horrible death all that peaceful.”
“I’m very serious,” the mysterious alien answered. “Come now, Selene. I promise no harm will come to you.”
I shouldn’t have believed him. His words made no sense. If I stepped out of the cockpit, I’d end up like August, or worse. But a strange haze settled over me and all of a sudden, I found myself unable to resist. My hands moved of their own accord, sliding over the controls of the chimera.“No, Selene, don’t,”Sphinx cried.
She tried to block what I was doing, but her efforts proved to be in vain. She couldn’t keep me trapped inside her. In the end, there was a reason why chimera pilots were called tamers. I forced my way past her and opened the cockpit.
“There you go,” the apsid encouraged me. “Don’t worry. We won’t hurt you. You’ll be fine.”
“Fine?”a small voice screeched at the back of my head. I was at the mercy of hostile aliens, with next to no protection against the void of space. If I survived this, it would be nothing short of a miracle.
