7. RAASLA

The incessant chatter of the human female, Ellie, as she had introduced herself, was getting on my nerves. I found myself glancing over to the table where Zoe sat with the two human males. She looked ridiculous and adorable in her Cryon uniform.

My stomach knotted as I watched her smile at one of the two human males. I didn't like it.

When one of them rose to recycle his used plate before he approached me, I contemplated running my fist through him just because she had smiled at him. What held me back was how the idea startled me. I had never provoked a fight or fought over a female. It just wasn't worth it. There were so many of them.

Not like her, my mind shouted.

"Captain Raasla?" I didn't correct the human but forced myself to stay calm and pleasant as I nodded. "Can we talk to you for a moment?"

The we implied that I was to get up and follow him. Something I would have never considered under normal circumstances, but to get away from Ellie of the incessant chatter and roving hands, I would swallow my pride. That Zoe sat at the other table had nothing to do with it. Not a thing. Or so I told myself.

"If you will excuse me." I sent my best seductive smile at Ellie and followed the human male to his table.

"I'm Peter, by the way. This is Eric and Zoe, you know already," Peter introduced.

He pulled a chair out and sat down. The three stared expectantly at me. Zoe's eyes were slightly veiled, rendering me unable to read her mood.

I remained standing with my arms crossed over my chest. "You wanted to talk?"

"Hm, yeah, do you want to sit down?" Eric asked, pursing his lips uncomfortably.

"I'm good," I replied, already bored with the conversation.

"You mentioned space days, so we assumed there were space nights." For the second time, Zoe spoke up when all the others seemed to have lost their tongues. "We're trying to come up with a schedule until we land on Astrionis. How do we know when it's night?"

"The lights will dim," I explained, assuming the universally accepted time would have been used by the Cryons as well. "It will be your choice to turn them off entirely in your sleeping areas."

She sighed. "Is there something like… a clock? Something that tells you, you have however hours our whatever until night or morning?"

If the humans relied on a clock to tell them what and when to do, they were even less advanced than I originally thought. "This is space. You eat when you're hungry, sleep when the lights dim, and get up when they brighten."

"Right." Eric nodded.

"Was there anything else?" I asked, hoping there was besides this waste of my time. Which struck me as funny since I had just lectured them on time.

"Yes." Zoe, of course. "Will the elevators work for us so we can inspect the other floors and… clean them?"

I had told her to eliminate the Cryon corpses, so I supposed it was my fault now if humans swarmed all over the ship.

"I will take care of it. Stay away from the upper floors." I had no desire to run into them whenever it pleased them. As far as I was concerned, the five days couldn't go by quick enough.

Why then did my stomach turn at the thought of delivering her to her destination and never seeing her again?

The new black stripes on my arm and hip itched uncomfortably. With a short grunt, I took my leave. I had other worries right now than this strange human woman and the allure she held over me.

Back on the bridge, I searched the Cryon database for anything known about us Space Guardians. I could have accessed my regular communicator, but some instinct told me to keep this on the down low. I didn't want Possedion to find out about me searching yet, or ever.

What I discovered chilled me to the bone and made me lean back in the chair, closing my eyes to digest the information that had been there all along. But as far as I knew, nobody had ever bothered to dig out. And why would we? The Ohrurs gave us everything we needed, including access to superior data banks. That they might have been scrubbed of certain information or that certain information was only available to certain people had never crossed my mind, and I doubted any of the others had ever dug any deeper.

Space Guardians, by occupation, were primarily solitary beings. We hardly ever worked in teams or together. Why should we? We were trained to be the best, the strongest, fastest, most advanced killing machines.

There were only a few of us out there, maybe a thousand. Having more than one Space Guardian on the same mission rarely happened.

I drummed my fingers on the armrest. There are four of us searching for humans, I reminded myself. This time, I used the Ohrur database to check on old missions, to see if anything like this had ever happened. The most I could find was one mission, a few centuries ago, where three Space Guardians had penetrated a powerful pirate ring and decimated it. One Space Guardian had lost his life, and the other two were names known to me, legendary names. The names of heroes whose accomplishments were immortal. Something any of us thrived to do. Their faces and names graced the great halls of the Ohrur palace among other legendary Space Guardians.

Emperor Daryus must have deep pockets indeed, I mused. Then again, he couldn't declare war on the Cryons himself unless he wanted to bring the wrath of the GTU upon his empire.

I searched the database for more information on the emperor and humans and discovered one more interesting fact. The human female who had won the emperor's heart wasn't simply his mate. She was his mekarry—his soulbond. Something the Pandraxians hadn't experienced in a long time.

Now it made sense to me why Daryus would spare no cost to find as many stolen humans as possible.

With a sigh, I turned my attention back to the other matter, the one I had been mulling over in my subconscious mind, the one I didn't want to think about because… it was atrocious.

I warned myself that I had to take any information I discovered on the Cryon's databank with caution. Their culture also was one of propaganda and lies to keep their own citizens in line.

Darlam, I mulled the name I had never heard before over in my mind, but there was nothing, no spark of recognition, no sudden aha moment. The word didn't mean anything to me. Yet it was the one given to my race, my ancestors.

The same inner voice that had advised me before to keep this on the down low made me access the Cryon's data on more information about the Darlam. A race that was believed to have been extinguished millennia ago. A race of brave, strong fighters. Known for their stamina and—loyalty.

Not much seemed to have been known about them, only that… they had been exterminated by the Ohrur!

I punched my fist into the chair and told myself to stay calm and not jump to conclusions. I didn't yet even know if I was a Darlam. This was just a hunch.

The Darlam were strong warriors, most striking were their black stripes that only appeared after their mating with their soulbond. I read on and froze.

Soulbond. There was that word again for the second time in less than the span a ship traveled at hyperspeed.

Easy, I advised myself. Black stripes can mean a lot of things. Karetors have black stripes, and so do Melvicks. I was right about that, yet a voice deep inside me told me I was on the right track. The same voice that warned me in combat if someone sneaked up behind me.

Noodarpopped into my head. Noodar was the only Space Guardian I had ever grown close to. We had gone through the same training, and as fate would have it, we had been on the same mission once. If there ever had been a bond of brotherhood between Space Guardians, it would have been him and me. Don't get me wrong, Space Guardians were a brotherhood. We would die for one another, we just didn't get along well.

I wasn't sure why Noodar popped into my head, if only because I had inquired about him a few years ago after not having run into him in a while. Possedion told me that Noodar had died the hero death during a mission. A mission he failed. He had been supposed to protect a princess, that much I knew. Strangely, the princess had never been heard of again either.

My hand wasn't trembling when I entered the next command into the Cryon's computer, but I had to make an effort to keep it that way.