Kalon

  Chapter Ninety-Three: Uko Ul Dadak

  Galactic Quadrant: Darna Quadrant

  Ruling Government: Talum Merchant Federation

  Solar System: D-447

  Planet: Ora

  Location: Above the planet's surface

  Kotina looks back and forth between Luna and me for a few moments; her eyes still appraising. Luna having just finished her retelling of events, she did not tell her about how I used the Cursed Edict. Something tells me that my life expectancy might go down dramatically if Kotina did know.

  Rubbing her temples, “Am I missing anything else?”

  “No,” Luna lies, “Do you have anymore questions, or can I take a shower and get changed?”

  Kotina lets out a light chuckle, pointing toward a compartment on the side of the ship, “Go ahead.”

  Luna looks back and forth between us for a few seconds, hesitation in her stance.

  “Don’t worry, I won’t hurt him,” Kotina says with an eye roll.

  Luna nods and departs, leaving us alone. My body shifts uncomfortably under her stare.

  “So, where are you from?” Kotina asks.

  “Ora, Naro city,” I say, she does not reply so I ask, “Where are you from?”

  Kotina moves her jaw a little, musing her words, “Korvak 7 originally, I would consider Ravena Prime my home world now though,” there is a tinge of bitterness in her tone, not of her new world, but her old.

  I have never heard of Korvak 7 before, what else can I ask her? I wonder if she is better at answering questions than Luna.

  “Have you ever been off world before?” she asks, the tone is calm and measured, yet I feel intent behind it.

  “No,” shifting my weight, I try to decide my next question, but she speaks before I can.

  “Never?” there is an undertone in her voice building.

  “Never,” I say.

  “Really?”

  My eyes narrow at her, she is like Luna, asking more than answering.

  “What is a Knight Commander?” I ask, I will not dignify her repetitive question.

  “You’re telling me that you don’t know what one is?”

  “We are told very little on my world, except where to toil.”

  “Well, that’s interesting,” she says, her eyes narrowing back, “Knight Commanders command Knights.”

  My eyes want to roll at her response, but I fight it back.

  “What are Knights?” I ask.

  “Serious?” she asks with an eyebrow raise.

  “Like I said, very little.”

  “Still, that’s hard to believe,” she says, almost scoffing, like she thinks we are playing a game, “Knights are soldiers who have been recognized by the Theocratic Imperium and trained in their ways. Knight Commanders are the elite amongst them.”

  An actual answer, so, not completely like Luna.

  “Why did you take the Edict?” she asks, her expression becoming calmer, her eyes more focused.

  “I did not,” I protest, before I can ask a question, she asks another.

  “What God or Goddess’s do you worship?” she asks, she did not believe my answer, nor let me ask a question. She is winning this conversation of exchange. I need to change the dynamic or it will become one sided.

  “Who do you worship?” I ask.

  “Ravena, Hekate and Thane,” she says, “And you?”

  “I don’t.”

  “Don’t what?”

  “Worship.”

  She blinks at me, raising an eyebrow, there is disbelief in her eyes.

  “Who did your parents worship?” she asks, crossing her arms and leaning back in her seat. A thick metal chair that has blinking lights on the side. Plain in style, like the rest of the ship, designed only for function. It is no wonder that she seems to dislike Fennec, they seem fundamentally different in style choices.

  Thinking about her question for a few moments, I recall my mother, spending many nights intimately praying with her Goddess. It always felt strange watching her pray, like she was conversing.

  “My mother worshiped Amara.”

  A tingling sensation fills me after the name parts my lips. Yet nothing else happens.

  “And your father?”

  “I do not know,” I admit, eyes falling to the floor.

  “Why don’t you know?”

  “I never met him, my mother said he died before I was born,” my eyes travel back upward, “Who did your parents worship?”

  “Don’t know, never met either of them,” she says, there is no hint of bitterness about it, like it is something she has long since gotten over, “So, your mother worshiped the Kuwathi Goddess of death, interesting choice.”

  “What are the boundaries?” I ask.

  Her head tilts again, measuring my words, a shallow smile finding the corner of her lip for but a moment.

  “Very little indeed,” she says, the tone of disbelief ebbing from her, “She never did tell me your name.”

  Before I can answer, I hear Luna’s footsteps on the metal grates of the walkway.

  “His name is Kalon, now if you’re done interrogating him, he’d probably like to shower and change,” Luna says, her purple eyes shimmering under the bright lights of the ship’s high ceilings.

  Find this and other great novels on the author's preferred platform. Support original creators!

  “That was a fast shower. Fair enough though,” Kotina sighs, standing now, “Come on, I’ll show you how to use it.”

  “He knows how to use a shower,” Luna says with an annoyed tone, “I can show him anyways.”

  “No, you need to record a holo of your story for your father to review when he returns.”

  With that, Kotina moves past me, motioning me to follow, leaving Luna alone with a strange expression on her face. Making our way into the side compartment, I see many panels on the wall that look like they might unfold to be storage. Everything on the ship is painted black or left unpainted. She leads me to a small chamber with a single mirror and a toilet, in a smaller chamber next to it, there are nozzles of some kind on the sides of the wall.

  She eyes me up and down, appraising me again, then opening one of the panels she removes a black uniform without any logos and with minimal design.

  “These should fit you,” she says, setting them on the sink, “Put your sorry excuse for clothing in this bin,” she opens another recess in the wall, a dark chute behind it.

  Stripping down I do as she asks, her eyes examining me.

  “I never did say thank you,” she says, extending her arm, a strange look on her face.

  Taking her arm, I nod to her, but as I pull away, something cuts me shallowly, my eyes trace down to inspect. A small drop of blood forms near my hand. Strange, did she mean to cut me as a warning, or did her clothes accidentally do it?

  “Well, be quick, I have a lot of questions for you,” she says, leaving the room.

  Stepping into the rooms with nozzles, a recessed door slides closed. Three lights illuminate from the panel on the wall, each one an option, slow, normal and fast. It must be the shower speed. Clicking the fast one, I hear whirring as servos begin to move, the nozzles shifting side to side.

  Hot water sprays at me from every direction, rapidly wetting me, bubbles forming all around me from some kind of soap. The nozzles spray all over, moving along tracks on the wall. I scrub my body with my hands, black grime from old Shulka blood slides from me toward the drain on the floor.

  ***

  After finishing dressing, I find that Kotina was correct about the size of the outfit, it is a very good fit. Many pockets on the pants and shirt show me its utility. The fabric feels strong yet light. Having returned to the main chamber now, I sit next to Luna, she is recalling again her tale for Kotina.

  “Okay,” Kotina says, running her hand through her hair, “Let’s recap…”

  “Kotina, we’ve been recapping since you picked us up,” Luna protests.

  “Just want to make sure I have all the facts straight,” she says, Luna begrudgingly nods to her, “So, after you spend months searching for your target, Kalon steals the Edict from you…”

  “I did not steal it.” I interrupt. My skin feels flushed, not from her words, but like I am getting over a fever, my eyes blink it away.

  “Right,” Kotina says, there is no mistaking the tone of disbelief, she turns back to Luna, “Then, Fennec sends you home because you effectively failed your mission, and somehow the Draconis brat finds out you’re on board and decides that’s the perfect time to get revenge, openly I might add, you’ve got no idea how much of a slagstorm that incident has caused, the ramifications are still being discussed by the Senate.”

  “It’s not my fault that he…” Luna begins, but Kotina holds up a finger.

  “Then you miraculously managed to survive,” Kotina says, rolling her neck, “Which I am obviously happy to see, guess you did pay attention in training.”

  Luna crosses her arms, fighting back an eye roll.

  Kotina leans back slowly in the chair now, “But what I can’t wrap my brain around is how Kalon, the Edict’s thief managed to be in the right place at exactly the right time. Defies logic really,” her eyes narrow on me, making Luna shift uncomfortably.

  “He had nothing to do with it.”

  “Right, of course not, he’s just got extremely good luck, managing to be the only person who can save you, and make you indebted to him.”

  My jaw flexes at her accusation, even if I can understand the cautious nature she is revealing. Another flash of heat ricochets in my body, but it quickly dies, perhaps it is recoil from breaking the boundaries or the drink that Tavjac gave me. I still need to learn more about both of them.

  “Kotina…”

  She holds up a finger again to stop Luna, “Kalon, why were you out there anyways, rock collecting in the middle of the night? Playing tag with Krothaspawn? Or maybe, just maybe, preparing to be her savior…”

  “Enough!” Luna roars, standing up, “He saved my life, there doesn’t need to be anything else said on the matter.”

  “Sit down,” Kotina says, an air of calm intent in her voice that prickles my spine, “You’re too old for tantrums, besides, I’m just trying to understand what happened, better I ask, else it will be your father or an interrogator.”

  A grimace finds Luna’s face as she slowly sits down.

  “Good, now, where was I?” Kotina begins, leaning forward a little, her gaze finding mine before moving back to Luna, “So, then you somehow through the strangest of circumstances managed to crash land, literally right next to where he was… you never did say why you were there, Kalon.”

  Her gaze intensifies, the memories of how I crashed coming back to me. I remember the wreckage from Luna’s ship making the grumbling man grumble no more, the frail pilot being crushed by debris and Betran the one who bought me, I remember the look on his face as I killed him. How the black box became sinister once it drank my blood. The first time I met Krotha, memories of pain.

  “That was a question,” Kotina says with narrowing eyes.

  “I did not want to be there,” I begin, weighing my words, “It was not my choice.”

  A look appears in Kotina’s eyes, one I know well, the look of someone who will cause me pain to find an answer. My hands move slowly toward my blades, feeling them brings a calm.

  “I will ask again, why were you there when she crashed, what part did you play in it, who are you working for?” Kotina growls.

  “I am no one’s blade,” I growl back, “I crashed there, the debris from her ship killed the man piloting.”

  Her eyes search me carefully, “Why were you there?”

  “It was not my choice to be there,”

  “Why?” Kotina asks again.

  “I…”

  “Go on then, I’m all ears,” Kotina says, an angry smile crossing her lips.

  “I was sold,” I admit.

  “Who sold you and why?”

  “My chief, for weapons and medigel.”

  Luna does not speak, but her eyes catch in mine, searching me, filling with that thing I hate to see in them… pity. It spurs the anger in me… I am not pitiful. This is part of why I had not told her, I do not want her pity. Besides that, there is the shame of having been sold, my teeth grit thinking on it.

  “That does not explain why you were sold,” Kotina says impatiently, she does not believe me, she thinks I am lying, even though I do not know her well, it is clearly written on her face.

  “Kotina, he has answered enough, leave him alone,” Luna pleads.

  “So, you expect me to believe that you just chanced across her in the markets of a random Kuwathi internment city. And also just happened to accidentally borrow her missions most essential item, magically appearing with it again at her time of need?”

  The way she says internment city, is that how she sees my people’s plight? Like we are just graves waiting to be filled. She is not wrong though, after seeing a glimpse of how the Arasha live, I find it hard to disagree.

  “Uko Ul Dadak.”

  “Your belief is your own,” Kotina says, tilting her head, “Cute.”

  “I am not the enemy you seek,” I say, my body is tense, sweat beading down my brow, not just from her words, but from whatever is going on inside. Flashes of heat.

  “Want to hear my theory?” Kotina asks.

  “No.”

  She chuckles before rolling her neck, her gaze fixing on me again, “I think that you are working with House Draconis.”

  “That’s insane,” Luna says, shaking her head, “He would have cut my throat while I slept, he had many opportunities.”

  “Not if the Draconis brat wanted the pleasure of killing you himself.”

  “Then why would Dallus…” Luna’s words catch in her throat saying his name, she blinks away memories before continuing, “Why would he destroy a ship to kill me, instead of approaching me head on?” Luna retorts, her brow furrowed, “This is a horrible theory so far.”

  “A fair point, yet he,” Kotina points to me, “was there waiting at the wreckage, to confirm your death no doubt. Maybe he got other orders, maybe surviving pissed off that brat and he wanted to do it himself.”

  “Kotina, you’re reaching,” Luna sighs, shaking her head.

  “Maybe, if not from Draconis, definitely from another House working closely with them though,” Kotina turns to me again, “Here’s why, I think you stole the Cursed Edict, your House realized what it was, and had you return it once they realized she survived the crash, gaining her trust, trying to find out more about what her mission was.”

  “Why?” Luna asks, crossing her arms. She no longer seems as irritated, almost like she is enjoying the argument.

  Another wave of heat rolls over me, sending a shiver throughout my body, Kotina eyes me curiously as it happens. Strange. Maybe she can sense something is wrong. I should be cautious of her. What boundary has she passed I wonder? Or is she just intuitive? No, if she was, she would be able to tell I am not lying. Or perhaps she thinks I have been trained to hide it, I guess in a way, I have. An Ulima who cannot lie well will die.

  “That’s an easy one, to get dirt on House Ravena. Bringing one of the strongest Houses in the Galaxy into your palm is a very valuable thing,” Kotina says assuredly, then looking down at her holopad, a wry grin finds her lips, “Guess my theory is starting to pan out.”

  “Doubtful,” Luna quips.

  Kotina stands slowly.

  “I’m sorry for this Luna, I really am, but you’re far too trusting,” Kotina says with a sigh, “Bind.”

  Suddenly metal shoots up from the floor, I roll forward barely managing to avoid it, I spin and another metal piece coils and wraps my leg from behind, I try to pull free, but it doesn’t give, Sekat. The metal spindles and wraps Luna and me separately in a tight embrace, Luna pulls at the restraints, more rise from the floor. For the first time I do not see metal bending under her strength. The hue of the alloy is one I have not seen before. Kotina’s hand moves with the metal… is she controlling it… but how?

  “Relax, I just want to get to know your new friend,” Kotina says, moving towards me, “I will warn you now, I don’t like repeating myself, why were you really there?”