16 Cylene

Faerlin knocks me into a cage. I lose my grip on my wristband and my shield drops. My head slams into the wall, and my helmet cracks.

He's red with rage. "I'll punish you later after I figure out what to do with the Nytheralian trash."

"He's more a man than you ever were," I snap.

Punches the clear pane between us. "You shut up!"

"I'm surprised you finally caught your first creature, all by your little self." Inside, I'm terrified of what he wants to do to me, but at the same time, I'm more worried about Vitus.

I had no idea Faerlin had a ship or technology of the enemy of the federation. But when I think back to how many credits he threw at my father for exotic mutants, I guess it makes sense that he was involved in black market dealings with the shadow soldiers.

"Did they approach you, or was it the other way around?" I ask as he starts to walk off. His guards put Vitus in a cage at the end of the room, three others between us.

A few days in the care of Vitus has me realizing that I am capable of more, that I deserve better treatment, and that I want a better life, but not at the cost of Vitus'. Jalut, Lanos, Darsus, and Rhinin have all been good to me, and half of them haven't even met me.

"Since when did you learn to backtalk me so much?" Faerlin demands, an eye twitching from his fury. "Just days ago, you ran for your life from me."

"Can't run in here." I shrug. "I can't go anywhere."

This is not my first time being locked in a small space. "Not sure what you want with me when you have all of your other creatures to play with."

Faerlin draws a collar out of his pocket and hangs it on the door handle. "Say one more word, I dare you."

I don't want to wear the collar again, so I keep quiet.

Vitus listens from the cage at the end of the hall. He hasn't spoken since we were captured. I think he's pissed at me for not warning him. But I didn't know how much trouble Faerlin was.

"Don't go anywhere," Faerlin remarks with a smirk. "I'll be back for you."

He kicks Vitus' cage door on the way out. Vitus doesn't even flinch like he's been through this a hundred times.

I bang my head back against the wall and eye all the creatures in cages that he hoards. They eat good, but don't get the love or freedom they deserve.

On the glass beside me crawls a familiar glowslug. Across the hall are many of the animals I've caught for him, a few I didn't. The mutant chameleon eyes me from the opposite cell.

"What's the dumbest thing you've ever done?" I ask Vitus.

"Thinking I was the same soldier after I fell for you." He picks at something in his hands. "Got caught up in making you happy and lost sight of keeping you safe."

I slump and feel like signing up for the race is still my biggest mistake. I wonder what life would've been like if I'd simply saved my credits and broke free on my own. "What's something you miss doing that you can't as a soldier or a general or whatever."

He glances over at me and sighs. "There's a beautiful violet lake on my planet that turns pink under the sun, then fades again to violet under the paler light of the moons. I used to like to sit on a bench beside the water and watch it turn. It was the same lake, but two different colors depending on where it was. I wanted to be like that, able to be a good soldier and a good mate, something my father was not. He was a soldier first, a father last."

I look over, curious if a male of his caliber has any ideas for how to get us out of here, only to find he's not in his cell.

"Vitus?"

A blue light crackles in the floor. I get up and stand to the side. The traced panel shimmies and falls through. Vitus peeks up at me and offers me a hand. "I wager he'll be back soon, just like he promised."

I glance over at the chameleon just before Vitus lowers me. "Can we break out one more?"

"We can try. But we don't have a lot of time."

"I know. I just feel guilty. I caught a lot of the creatures in here while under my father's control."

Vitus looks up from the drainage and ventilation shaft. "Which one?"

"Across from mine."

We crawl through the opening to the chameleon's cage. Vitus taps something on his wristband and then pushes the blue button. Instead of a shield, it ignites a hot blue torch.

When the panel drops, I scramble through, collect the chameleon with a touch to its mating glands, and then cart it below with us.

"Any idea where your ship is?" I ask him.

Vitus leads me through a grid of passageways before lowering himself through another opening. He helps me down, and we sneak along a catwalk high up in a large hangar.

"I told you I don't have that shipment ready." Faerlin practically shouts at his holovid. "If you want the light weapons early, you'll have to pay extra. Novarks get their cut. But you need to give me mine for transport. Nebulous soldiers don't like the light, but it has to be powerful enough to burn them, or it won't work. That takes time."

Vitus motions to the swooping placoid shaped vessel in midnight blue in the center of the hangar. It's a sleek ship, but that's not what catches my eye.

I motion behind him to the canisters of white and black that line the dock.

Shadow smoke?I mouth to him. Light bombs?

He studies them for a long moment, then eyes the spots on the chameleon. "Distraction?"

I'll take the chance if it means getting out of here. We split up. I walk silently toward Faerlin's position while Vitus sneaks to the canisters for a peek.

As I reach Faerlin's end of the hangar, Vitus picks up a rack of each canister and quietly loads them on his lowered ramp. A clank steals Faerlin's attention.

I drop down before him, the chameleon in hand, hoping to regain his attention.

Faerlin gapes at me then growls. "How did you get out?"

"Does it matter?" I saunter toward him as he calls for his guards. "You can't keep me in a cage. You shouldn't keep anyone in a cage. If there's something I've learned in the last five days, it's that working together makes for better results."

Vitus's ship rumbles to life, hovers above the floor, and fires at the lower doors. They groan and a sealscreen pops to life in a luminescent sheet beneath the ship.

When Faerlin lurches at me, hands clawed as if desperate to not let me be free. The Chameleon's spikes flare. It sprays acid from its mouth in defense. I use the distraction to run toward Vitus's ship and dive inside the closing ramp.

I tuck the chameleon tight in my arms, then run for the copilot's seat.

"Hang on, little buddy!"

The chameleon grips my leg as Vitus swings a gun back and fires through the ramp opening.

I look back to see Faerlin cave and bodyslam a wall.

"I told you I'd kill whoever hurt you." He ignites the dorsal thrusters and launches us downward and into space.

Jalut immediately comes over the coms. "Hyperjump, General! We are in pursuit!"

Faerlin's ship fires at us.

Vitus directs me to the flashing dash. "Tap all the triangles when they line up."

"What is this, a video game?" I ask.

The moment I select the first pair, a rocket blazes out of the side of the ship, racing back toward Faerlin's vessel. "Ooh! I get it!"

Vitus thrusts us away from the nebula as ten blue ships twice Vitus' in size and armament advance on Faerlin's position.

"They have smoke and light weapons on board! We could use them," Vitus calls out.

"Too bad. I really wanted to blow it up!" another male voice replies.

"Darsus?" Vitus grins.

"I'd be a shitty stand in Second if I didn't come to your rescue. When you're in the clear, call out. We need to meet up."

"Roger." Vitus taps the comlink and stops its flashing, then flies us out into space. "Are you hurt, Cylene?"

"A bit of a headache, but that's it."

He nods but says nothing more as we leave the nebula. I hope I haven't lost his trust or the lives of his kind.

I pet the Chameleon on my leg. All I wanted was to live my life free, but it seems, no matter what I do, I'm always endangering someone who doesn't deserve it.