Page 3 of Tavarr's Mate
Something has happened to the wormhole.
The flash fizzles out until nothing but blackness is left where the Anders-Perkins Wormhole should be located. Screams ring out around me, and I drop my suitcases.
A thought strikes me, and the implications grip me with coldness.
Could it be the Kleaxians?
I can’t imagine who else has destroyed the wormhole. Or who else would open fire on theStargazer. Unless there’s another alien race nearby that even Harry doesn’t know about.
The blue and green blinking lights rearrange into a triangle and direct multiple white beams at theStargazer.
Panic consumes me. This can’t be happening. It can’t. Not on the very night I’m supposed to depart this planet that has brought me nothing but misery.
I run out of the café and join a group taking the elevator down. A man next me is crying that his wife is aboard theStargazer. Others are shaking and sobbing, muttering to themselves and each other that this can’t really be happening.
Once the elevator hits the ground floor, I race into the street, but then pause in the middle of the crowd. Almost everyone remains standing still, looking at the sky. I glance up again to find the shooting has ceased, but the other vessels are now closer to theStargazer, practically on top of the ship.
“The wormhole is gone! Oh my God!” a woman screams.
“How will we get back to Earth?” a man laments.
How indeed? Disbelief envelops me and I start walking toward the condo I’ve shared with Harry for the last two years. I doubt theStargazeris going to land on time—if at all. My ticket is still in my back pocket though, just in case.
For a moment, I consider returning to the café for the bags I’d abandoned, but I don’t want to spare the few minutes it’ll take to grab them, nor do I want anything weighing me down.
My gut whispers we’ll all soon be running for our lives.
If the Kleaxians destroyed the wormhole and opened fire on theStargazer, chances are they’ll visit Capital Acres to wreak their devastation next.
I think of the images and videos of Kleaxians that Harry’s showed me and shudder. Most of their males are over seven feet tall and freakishly muscular, built like fierce warriors. And if they can destroy a wormhole, they also apparently have technology superior to humans. None of our vessels intended for space travel possess weapons.
The Kleaxian ships suddenly veer away from theStargazer, spreading out in all directions. Then the alien vessels resume firing.
A blinding explosion lights up the night sky.
It’s gone. It’s fuckinggone.
TheStargazerhas been destroyed.
I take a deep breath and race back to the condo, weaving through the panicked masses, and grab Harry’s extra ID card.
No matter what happens, I’m not going to die here. I’m not.
Chapter Two
Smoke billows into the night sky, and the ground shakes with fury. I navigate through the chaos of the alien attack on Capital Acres, my heart pounding. Screams and weapons’ fire ring out from every direction, prompting me to run faster. Women are being dragged onto a hovercraft in a clearing up ahead.
Women. Only women.
I pray the aliens don’t catch me.
A human man in a security uniform emerges from behind a tree and opens fire on the Kleaxians, but misses his target, and a nearby alien blasts him with a beam of white light. The human man drops dead, joining the other bodies scattered lifeless on the ground. Smoke is rising from those felled by the strange light shooting weapons, and the sickening smell makes me gag. Still, others are laying in the street bleeding from wounds inflicted with long daggers many of the Kleaxians are wielding. A few are missing heads and other body parts.
I swerve to the left and sprint to a back road that winds out of the sprawling city. Thick vegetation surrounds me. I run until my mouth tastes like pennies and my side throbs in agony.
Most of the inhabitants of Capital Acres are probably shocked by this evening’s events, but I’m not. I’ve known about the Kleaxians for longer than I care to admit, and I know all about the horrible atrocities that have been committed against their species.
Clearly, the humans who first settled this planet had underestimated the strength of the Kleaxians, or an entire city that catered to thousands of tourists wouldn’t have been constructed here.
