Defiant. Tome 1. Defiant

Chapter 1. Sour

Hunter raised his eyes to one of the giant screens and couldn’t hold in his scowl.

It was the same thing again. And it made him sick watching yet another interview about Serena.

Was it really all that necessary to milk the news how the woman sacrificed herself to save the Empress?! Or was it because she did just that – and the Laithorians decided to show their people how loyal Serena really was, even though she had been wronged so much?

«I don’t think she even knew how wonderful she is, you know?» Pher’s face was solemn and eyes sad. «When I met her, I never even suspected how kind, selfless and brave she is. I mean… at the time she was just a woman like any other I’ve ever met, just a stranger… but as soon as I started getting to know her better, I understood that behind her beautiful face and her demeanour there was a woman of intelligence, wit, honour…»

Hunter took a sip from the bottle, feeling irritated hearing those words. Like all that mattered at the moment.

He continued his way, still hearing the interview continuing.

They all went through a series of interviews after the battle that happened on Garmfrig. And those were sent all over the known human Universe, while the war continued and the Company failed again and again to seize their own colonies under their power. MSS Lyssandra and alongside it – the SS Growler, fought on even without Serena helming them in the war.

For two long weeks the fights continued here and there. Two weeks after the failed assassination attempt that was aimed to kill Empress Alathea.

Hunter still remembered the day that happened, like it was yesterday.

He probably had the best vantage point, having landed on one of the balconies above the square on his Dragon hover bike, and keeping an eye out for any dangers. The Empress and her Royal Guards were there, by the podium that was usually a place for advertisements and public speeches made by whoever was leading the colony at the time.

This time the speech was being delivered by the Laithorian Empress herself.

Keeping an eye out, Hunter wasn’t really looking at the Empress and her Royal Guards, understanding very well that trouble could come from other places.

«People of Garmfrig!» Empress Alathea shouted when the gathered crowd fell silent. «The Company has long lied and misled the colonies just like yours! And yet it has come to my attention that you were in need of help, because the Company was wreaking havoc. The Laithorian Empire heard your plea and came to help you overthrow the greedy men and women that benefit from your hard work, while you crawl and seek other means to get necessities! Your hardships are over!»

Before the Empress continued her speech, Hunter saw Serena tensing up in the front rows of the crowd. The woman suddenly glanced around, and only then Hunter heard the Royal Guards moving closer to protect their Empress.

The cyborg looked up, seeing a very fast and agile projectile heading towards the podium.

«Rocket!» he screamed, alerting everyone and jumping to his hover bike to fly off.

He saw Serena activating her armour and jolting towards the podium as the rocket flew by. The jetpack on her back was fast enough to catch up, and – barely – get ahead of the projectile. As the Royal Guards and the Empress began shooting at the rocket that swirled away from their shots every time, Hunter was already heading to aid them.

But then a bright, warping field burst out of the rocket, immediately deactivating Veluthian armour, Serena’s jetpack and Hunter’s hover bike altogether. When he tumbled down to the square, he could see everyone frozen in shock and his beloved landing in front of the Empress just as the rocket exploded in a ball of fire, captivating the whole podium.

Hunter didn’t waste time jumping to his feet and hurrying to the podium as the crowd was erupting in screams and orders – people already moved to capture whoever shot the rocket and were fighting with a group of Company militia that managed to sneak into the square unnoticed.

The cyborg remembered how he landed next to Serena, as she fell down – her back mangled and burnt from the explosion. In an instant he gave her a shot of her stimulator meds he had on him, but he could see that the damage her body sustained was too great.

He wasn’t really hearing the Empress and her Guards – at least, the ones that got away relatively unscathed – screaming orders and organizing a transport ship off Garmfrig. But when medics arrived and tried to take Serena away, he almost fought them, because he wasn’t sure if she was alive or not.

If it weren’t for Wolfin and Lindon – he could have caused harm to the people who were trying to help not only Serena, but other wounded as well – both of Laithorian blood and ones from Garmfrig that were harmed during the assassination attempt.

Now… Hunter couldn’t really think at all and tried his best not to be seen anywhere.

Ever since that day they were all praised for their efforts in the battles, and they tried hard to stay a crew and fight even after Serena was no longer with them.

When the battles finally came to a halt – with the Company accepting its defeat and some of its colonies being freed from the tyrannical rule of the Company administration – MSS Lyssandra and SS Growler returned to Velutha, where they were praised as heroes of the Laithorian Empire.

But all that meant nothing without Serena by their side.

They accepted the Laithorian citizenship that came with their own apartments and everything else that was offered with it, but neither Hunter, nor others felt it was right.

And then came the PR campaign that forced them all into the bothersome routine of speaking to representatives of the Empress and the public relations specialists. Hunter hated those days. He tried to make himself scarce, but failed every time, because everyone knew who he was and where he came from. The man that fought alongside the Hero of Velutha, the Crimson Blade’s loyal Officer – he was recognised wherever he went.

Hunter thought about the interview he was persuaded to give. Lindon and Wolfin were almost begging him to give his side of the story about Serena. So did the others.

He accepted defeat and the Veluthian reporters gathered to hear him speaking about Serena.

Yet, he never finished the interview. It was too hard for him to talk about the woman he loved.

He walked out, because it was excruciating for him to talk about Serena and her heroic act that allowed the Laithorians to rise up, frenzied, and crush all Company efforts in a matter of days.

None of this mattered to him. He wished he could hold her in his arms and tell her how he loved her. But the sight of her back – burned to pitch black, with her bones shattered – kept crawling into his mind, not allowing him to forget the desperation he felt in that moment, when he saw her then. Unmoving, charred and mangled, she barely looked like herself.

Hunter gritted his teeth, trying hard not to allow tears bursting again. Veluthians do not approve of emotions. And he learned the hard way – everything you feel, should be kept behind closed doors.

The cyborg sipped some more alcohol out of the bottle and headed home, feeling hollow and alone. He took a deep breath, stepping a little faster to reach his cold, lonely apartment that he received for everything he was a part of thanks to Serena.

Everything seemed so wrong without her.

Chapter 2. Grasp

Laneth sighed, seeing Kayla grasping at the Scythian guitar again. The girl kept the instrument in her hands at all times – ever since what happened on Garmfrig.

Now, seeing Kayla sleeping soundly with the guitar by her side, Laneth couldn’t help but wonder if she would ever let go of the instrument. The woman heard John stepping behind her and felt him placing his palm on her shoulder, gently caressing.

She stood, leaving the girl she basically adopted over time, and walked out of her room, followed by John, who closed the door softly behind them.

«Any news from the others?» Laneth took a shaky, shallow breath.

«Not yet.» John shook his head.

The man saw Laneth stopping and suddenly turning to him, embracing. He didn’t deny her this bit of comfort, caressing her shoulder and landing a kiss to her head.

«It’s going to be alright.» he whispered.

«Will it, though?» she said, hiding her face on his broad chest.

«I’m sure it will.»

Laneth took a very deep breath and leaned back, feeling herself shivering.

«Will you be okay tomorrow, if I’ll go to work with Ilzer and his Engineering crew?» she asked.

«Of course! I can take Kayla to the museum, maybe distract her from all this… shit.» the man replied, feeling unnerved that everyone has been coping with the situation in such different ways.

Ever since Garmfrig, Laneth began to throw herself into work whenever she could – desperately trying to grasp at something she was good at and trying not to think about Serena. With the Empress’ introductions, Laneth started to work with the Royal Engineer Ilzer Garad, who was fascinated at the woman of Terran descent, who managed to find out so much about technology in such a short time – and all on her own.

Ilzer kept saying Laneth was a prodigy, and the woman waved it off every time, preferring to work, and not get swamped by the very same thoughts every time she stopped.

Something calming was in a way the Royal Engineering Bay worked.

This time it wasn’t any different. Laneth arrived, parking her Dragon in one of the corners, and Ilzer hurried to greet her. The man loved working with the mechanic from MSS Lyssandra – she had shown him so many designs he found extremely intriguing.

Together they now worked on a few of those – the very same ones Serena always said they would need more space, manpower and resources to build.

Laneth knew that even though she already had credits rolling in for supplying the Royal Engineers with her ideas and expertise – however little she thought about it – she wasn’t exactly looking to get money out of bringing her designs to life. It was the work that helped her be distracted, collected and calm.

She desperately needed to stay calm – for Kayla’s sake.

The girl, even though she was young, kept her emotions in check, which made her almost undistinguishable from Veluthian kids. But, unlike those, Kayla studied at home – mainly on her own, or with John helping her while Laneth was out.

«Laneth?» Ilzer’s voice made the woman flinch.

She froze, thinking about her adoptive daughter.

«What is it?» the woman replied, shaking of the sudden tension in her shoulders.

The Royal engineer offered her the wrench that slipped out of her grasp. He was silent, but in his eyes she saw him being worried for her.

«Thanks.» Laneth took the tool, shaking her head. «I got a little carried away in my thoughts.»

«We can take a break…»

«No need, I’m fine!» the woman gritted her teeth, then froze for a second and straightened. «On the other hand… I do need a moment or two!»

She handed Ilzer her tool and stepped away, grabbing her information tablet.

A new idea struck her suddenly – out of the blue – and she needed to write it down. She didn’t know how long she was sitting there, drafting her design, until Ilzer walked up again:

«Laneth?»

The woman turned the screen to the Royal engineer and he leaned in studying her new idea with a frown.

«You haven’t had success in making small scouting ships equipped with a reconfiguration module. This one will do the trick. Small and doesn’t use as much energy.» Laneth handed the tablet to the man and stood from the floor. «Plus it will show up during scanning, unlike any holographic cloaking you might have used before.»

«You based this off our armour pins…» Ilzer was shocked to see the same principle used in the device.

«If you can find an appropriate way to unite the systems without having to add an additional code…»

«Oh, that won’t be a problem…» Ilzer smiled to the woman. «Look!»

Laneth stepped closer to the man and saw him making a few notes, adding to her design a variation that would provide an additional shield to the scouting vessel. He showed her a couple of circuits that could be replaced with a higher capacity ones to make sure this upgrade module wouldn’t need any additional coding or programming involved.

«This way, if we program the initial module the same way we do our armour pins, it will be able to provide a reconfiguration option to all the models of our scouting ships.» Ilzer finished with a beaming smile.

Laneth nodded, agreeing and remembering the few details he changed, so that she could use the same things later in other designs and ideas.

«I wasn’t sure about which metals to use, though, but I guess you figured it out.» she said.

«Can I ask you a favour?» Ilzer suddenly became collected and glanced aside. «I have a personal project I wanted to make a prototype of to show the others and the Empress herself, but I have encountered a couple of problems. Maybe you could help me find where my calculations went wrong?»

«Sure.» Laneth was eager to stay focused and working, so that the thoughts about Serena wouldn’t come crawling into her mind again.

«This way…» Ilzer gestured aside.

He led her into another hangar, where the space was divided into cubicles big enough to hold a small space ship, similar to those scouting ones they’ve been talking about. Laneth saw the man approaching one of the cubicles, where an old model of a scouting ship stood, its insides taken apart and some new module in their place.

While Ilzer explained to her his thoughts about the project, the woman stepped up to the ship, examining what he had replaced. It took her less than a minute to understand that he was working on connecting Falana’s cloaking device to the ship.

The prototypes she provided were used in large ships, and she never supplied Veluthians with something that would work on smaller ones.

«Having trouble not frying the engine, when the device is switching on, right?» Laneth asked suddenly, when Ilzer paused to see her leaning into the engine compartment.

«Yes, unfortunately Falana, however dishonourable and foul she was, gave us only the schematics for a powerful cloaking device. We’re having trouble figuring out how to change it to make it work for our smaller ships.»

Laneth nodded, already engaged into her work. She examined the connections, circuits, chips and everything else, before frowning and extending her arm to the Royal Engineer:

«Hand me a screwdriver, please…»

The next few hours she grasped at the whole concept of working with Ilzer directly, feeling strange seeing the man working alongside her more as an assistant, rather than one of the leading engineers that he was.

When they finished, Ilzer was extremely glad to see his prototype working.

«I am so happy I came to know you, Laneth. You are a miracle of a mechanic!» Ilzer bowed, grateful for her help.

The woman didn’t answer. And although she was happy she could help, the feeling of dread slowly filled her heart again. She needed to go home – to John and Kayla. However strongly she loved and cared for them, it was at times like those she remembered how badly she missed Serena.

Chapter 3. Meditation

Lindon looked at the garden of his estate and felt a painful aching appearing in his heart.

While helping the Empress finishing off the Company resistance he was focused, collected and managed to keep his thoughts and feelings at bay. Now… he couldn’t help himself thinking about Serena.

He knew that everyone in his estate saw him freezing from time to time and falling into thoughts. No one had said anything, but the fact they all noticed him being so distracted, weighed on him. He wasn’t supposed to show so much emotion – even within grounds of his own home. And yet he did.

«You’re thinking about her again.» he heard Wolfin approaching from behind.

Wolfin was the only one who visited him constantly. He was the only one who really understood what it was like for him. A Veluthian knows…

«I am.» Lindon admitted, nodding.

«If she were to come back today, she would have seen you being less of a man you were, Lindon. Do you think she would approve?» Wolfin sighed.

«Approve? Probably not. Support me in my grief – definitely.»

Wolfin slapped his back with a smirk:

«See? You know how she’d act seeing you right now. So why not change something?»

«Because I feel helpless, Wolfin. I can’t…»

«You can.» Wolfin twitched his brow, unapprovingly. «You just don’t want to.»

Lindon couldn’t hold in a scowl:

«Maybe you’re right.» he said. «I don’t want to. Because I want something else.»

«You want her, and I can understand that.»

«I miss her too much, Wolfin. I can’t bring myself not to miss her.»

«We all do. We all cope in our own ways, but…» Wolfin sighed heavily. «When was the last time you meditated? You have such a beautiful place to do that, and I think you’d feel better if you did.»

«The last time…» Lindon shook his head. «It was before Garmfrig.»

«Come on… I want to show you something.»

Lindon didn’t allow his dark thoughts to decline Wolfin’s invitation to walk deeper into the gardens, where they sat on a bench and Serena’s mentor gestured to the various flowers growing before their eyes.

«Look at these. Do you know how many times Serena told me that she enjoyed this very sight? She would remember them when we were somewhere deep in space, reminiscing on the times she spent here, with you.» Wolfin said.

«She never said anything to me.» Lindon shook his head. «I thought our walks here always meant more to her in terms of our conversations…»

«That too. But she always found time to enjoy the sights here as well. She told me that it gave her a sense of calm, some way to keep her thoughts clear from the dark and heavy ones that crept in all the time.»

«I can’t blame her. She’s been through so much.» Lindon sighed, and a smile crept onto his face. «She was always so fierce, and yet found ways to stay collected. Even in the darkest of times… I love that about her.»

«Well, if we won’t be taking into account how many times she actually fallen prey to her inner darkness…»

«That’s what I mean, Wolfin. She did fall prey to it so many times, and every time she freed herself from it. I can’t imagine what kind of strength that takes. I can’t even seem to drag myself out of the dark, and I always thought I was strong.»

«Strength has its ways, Lindon. Sometimes we need to fall to get up again. You don’t even know how many times I saw her fall and get up when she was a child. I looked at her then, seeing her becoming angry, not hurt, and the very same trait I saw when we reconnected.»

«She never really told me much about her childhood. What was she really like?»

A warm smile appeared on Wolfin’s lips and he looked down, remembering:

«Stubborn. Strong-willed. Determined.» he replied. «I saw so many children her age crying after a fall. But she never did. No matter how hurt she was, how hard of a fall she experienced, she just grunted, got up and ran off again. And unlike her peers she was a daredevil and a prankster.»

The man sighed heavily, closing his eyes.

«She did mention she used to play tricks on you.» Lindon smirked.

«The only child that could sneak up on me unnoticed.» Wolfin agreed with a wide smile. «She jumped me every opportunity she had. One time she landed on my shoulders, jumping off one of the tallest trees in her family estate. I almost fell, even though she was so little. Imagine my surprise finding a stick that represented a sword at my throat.»

Lindon cackled, picturing the tall Veluthian caught off-guard by a little girl.

«She was always aiming to be better than her peers.» Lindon chuckled. «I loved that about her ever since we’ve met for the first time.»

«I never got a chance to ask…» Wolfin glanced at the man. «How… exactly did you two meet?»

«In the Academy I got transferred to another regiment, because I was top of my class.» Lindon smiled, glancing at the flowerbeds. «Serena… she was there, a little distant from others. And my new classmates decided to pull a prank on me. They offered me a bet I won’t be able to get her attention.»

«As in…» Wolfin twitched his brow.

«Yes. They all said that she’s a hard one to get. I didn’t know at the time that she declined every offer to share a bed.» Lindon touched his cheek. «I approached her, trying to figure out why a young woman so beautiful would be so distant, and found her reading one of the history books about Artemis Serdana. She outright blew me off, denying me any attention at all, but I didn’t back down.»

«Let me guess, she challenged you to a duel to make you stop your advances?»

«No. I was the one who challenged her.» Lindon chuckled. «She defeated me so quickly that I realised there is no other woman like her. I guess, that very moment was the point I fell in love with her. She left me a scar, and I kept it, making a tattoo of it after it faded. I wanted to keep hold of that memory…»

«But you did have a relationship with her while in the Academy… what changed?»

«After my defeat we were sent out to a battle… Serena found me after we got back and told me she was impressed.» Lindon shook his head. «Both by the fact that I challenged her and by the sight she saw on the battle field. We got some drinks, and I… expected to spend the night talking, but she was the one to approach me. That was our first night together.»

«I think she saw you for who you really are, Lindon.»

«I’m not sure what she saw in me then. But she did make me want to be stronger and worthy of her attention. Life might have pulled us away for a time, but I never lost hope. Though, I must admit it was extremely hard not to think that someone as low as the likes of me would ever be good enough for the heir of the Thara-Lyss family.»

«And yet here you are. The man who offered her marriage, and the one she accepted into her life and crew without a single thought.» Wolfin slapped Lindon on his shoulder. «Remember this. And try to think how well she influenced you. I never heard her say anything about accepting any marriage proposals, Lindon. She wanted to be yours… eventually. I think she thought you being the only Veluthian worthy of being her husband, if it were ever to come to that…»

Lindon didn’t reply, falling deep into his thoughts and Wolfin pat his back, standing up. Leaving Lindon alone, Serena’s mentor knew he helped the man get his thoughts together. Perhaps, Lindon will spend a couple of hours meditating by the flowers Serena loved so much.

He wasn’t wrong.

Chapter 4. New Garmfrig Council

Killian was distracted again, walking into the new hall that was built in a joint effort between Laithorians and people of the colony.

The man knew how much it all meant, but even weeks after couldn’t really shake off the thought of what happened to Serena. He saw it all, and saw her being taken away by the Laithorian medics. But no one ever told him if she ever survived.

He couldn’t bring himself to contact her crew, and always thought that if they were silent – that meant Serena was dead and they were grieving.

The old gangster sighed.

They all loved her – not just for the things she had done to help them all, but also for the woman she was.

«Distracted again, Killian?» Jaleka slipped to his side, walking next to him to their seats.

«Thinking.» Killian replied, throwing a careful glance at the Council members.

Once they were all mafia or gangsters that held Garmfrig and the nearby settlements under control. Now they became legal representatives and businessmen who influenced how Garmfrig would actually go on.

«I hope your thoughts are about the new trading agreements with Laithorians. We’re looking forward to that.» Jaleka smiled charmingly.