Page 2 of Protected By the Alien Space Guardian

As soon as I was aboard, I turned on the comm on the bridge. “Talk to me.”

“You didn’t abort the mission,” my superior replied as his sour-faced hologram materialized in front of me.

“I thought it more prudent to finish the mission,” I informed him, slouching down into the captain’s chair. Of all the things drilled into me since I could form a coherent thought, neither formalities nor obedience had played any part in it. They wanted us to think for ourselves. Well, you get what you wish for. I grinned.

Possedion, my minder, didn’t look happy but let it slide like I knew he would.

“You have a new mission.”

“I’m all ears,” I answered as his hologram paced the floor of my bridge without leaving a shadow or a sound.

“Why they want you is beyond me, but Emperor Daryus commissioned four Space Guardians.”

Impressed I whistled through my teeth. “Four?”

Possedion nodded. That was a lot of credits and a lot of power to hire.

“What does he want us to do?”

“The Cryons have discovered a new planet—”

“Earth.” I interrupted, unable to keep the smirk from my face. The other Space Guardians, my esteemed colleagues, might be just the sword of the Ohrur’s, doing their biding like we had been bred to, but I preferred to be well versed in the going-ons of the GTU’s—Galactic Treaty Union—reaches.

“Forgive me, I should have known you were already aware of this.” Possedion inclined his head toward me, unable to hide his proud smile, as if I was his favorite son, pupil, employee, whatever he wanted to call us.

“What am I to do?” I asked, waving him generously on.

“You know your insolence might not go over well with the others—”

Again, I interrupted him. “It’s not the others I’m dealing with, though, is it?” I had made sure of that by being as insolent as possible whenever the Ohrur Council decided to settle me with a new minder. They had invested too many credits in me to take offense by such a minor transgression and resigned themselves to keeping Possedion as my minder, much to his chagrin. Or so he liked to make it look. In truth, I was his favorite Space Guardian.

“At some point, you will have to work with someone else. I—”

I didn’t let him finish. “What does his imperial highness want with all this power?”

“Humans, as they call themselves, are the inhabitants of Earth. Many have been taken captive by the Cryons and are spread throughout the GTU’s boundaries and beyond. You and your brethren are to find and free them wherever you discover them.”

I scratched some green, dried blood off my knife that had escaped my earlier cleaning and creased my forehead. “Why does the emperor have such an interest in the humans? And what am I to do with them when I find them?”

“Punish whoever holds them captive in whatever manner you deem fit,” Possedion instructed. “Take any human captives to Astrionis, Lord Protector Garth’s domain. He will take them from there.”

We both knew Possedion hadn’t answered my question, not that it deserved one, not really. Usually, the why didn’t matter to me, but I was curious.

“Does it have anything to do with his new human empress? Or the fact that multiple powerheads of the Pandraxian Empire have mated with human females?” I baited.

“The why is not for us to know or judge,” Possedion lectured.

“No, we just kill whoever we are told to in order to enrich the glorious Ohrur oligarchy.” I snarked.

“I’m sorry, does your lot as a Space Guardian displease you? Do you wish to retire?” Possedion’s voice was drenched in sarcasm.

I laughed bitterly. “Retire on what? You and your lot keep all the credits I earn.”

“And you’d do well to remember that if you ever want to be paid out.” Possedion wasn’t smiling any longer.

Neither was I when I cut the transmission.

Ididn’t know then that the aliens who had attacked Earth and abducted me were called Cryons, nor did I care. In pain and feeling miserable, I leaned against a wall as best as I could with my arms tied behind my back.

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