Page 22 of Into The Rift

“Rakkur, what are you doing here? Are you and the baby all right?”

“Yes, we’re fine, but Tariq insisted I stay at this larger infirmary for a while, just to be safe. I swear, Jago, he’s going to drive me crazy. He was bad enough before all this happened, and now he’s impossible. What about you, though? Are you all right? I’m so sorry I left you behind.”

“I told you to go, and there wasn’t much either of us could do anyway. I think those decisions were being made at a higher level than either of us.”

“I’m relieved, though. I didn’t know how I was going to face Anarr and Renard and tell them I’d left you alone on that ship with the Pton commander. Anarr would have killed me.”

“It wasn’t so bad, after all. Lord Dominiko didn’t hurt me. I’m glad to see you, though. Blake and Davos must be really excited to have you back.”

“Yes, of course, but Blake is worried sick about you, too. Father is, as well, but he was more angry at the idea that someone would dare take members of his close family as hostages. They’re anxious to speak to us both. They’re on their way here, and…brace yourself…so are Anarr and Renard.”

“Oh no! There’s no need for that.”

“You can try talking them out of it, but I don’t think it will work. Renard is determined to take you back with them to Earth.”

“Well, I won’t go.”

“Jago, you know how Renard can get. He’ll insist.”

“I’m of legal age now and I simply won’t go. I won’t marry that man he has picked out for me.”

“I’ll leave that to you, but I just wanted to warn you.”

“What are you going to do? Will you keep traveling on to Tygeria?”

“Yes, I think so.”

“And the baby? You’re sure he’s fine?”

“Yes, everything’s good, the doctors say. I’ve had a little achiness and some nausea, but they say that’s to be expected. I’ve had some contractions that soon go away again too. And the baby’s been restless, but otherwise everything’s fine.”

“If you say so. But please tell me what you know about the lady Mikol used as his hostage. How did she come to be on Mikol’s ship? How did she even know about all this?”

“Well, I don’t know the whole story, I’m afraid, but I managed to get Tariq to tell me some of it. Lady Itaka arrived on Loros with her husband only hours after we left for Tygeria.”

“Her husband?”

“Yes. He’s a king, apparently, and a really powerful one. Their planet is in a star cluster in our own galaxy though far from us. His name is King Anton and Mikol knew of him, though his planet is fairly obscure. The star cluster is called the Colandus 50.”

Since I had traveled a little as a child with my parents, who were traders among the vast collections of stars known to humans as the Milky Way galaxy and the stars gravitationally attached to it, I knew a little about the galaxy we lived in. Very little, because the galaxy was so vast, not to mention mysterious, but to give some perspective, the planet Earth was located along one of the spiral arms of the Milky Way, about halfway from the center of the spiral.

Tygeria, though unimaginable distances away from Earth, was located on an adjacent spiral arm, but at the far end of that arm. Most of the other planets I was most familiar with, like the planets of Lycanus, Leeria, Moravia, Laltana and so on were on that arm with Tygeria as well. Loros was too, but at the farthest end of it, so it was nearest the rift, or the space between the end of our galaxy and the nearest one to us, another spiral, but even more vast than our own. Blake told me that it was called Andromeda by the humans. Keep in mind that “near” is a relative term. Andromeda is still a couple of million light-years away.

It was confusing to me for a long time, until the General told me to think of it like the galaxies were like vast cities and the star systems and star clusters lived in them. There were thousands of them, along with molecular clouds, and dark matter, but they were all still in the same big city.

Anyway, that third ship that had uncloaked off the side of Lord Domenica’s craft belonged to this king from the distant star cluster, who had brought Lady Itaka. When they first showed up in Lorian airspace, they said they had an urgent message to deliver. Mikol allowed them to land, and the king brought Lady Itaka down to the surface. Whatever they told Mikol had made him contact Tariq’s ship and advise him of an imminent attack. He was told to stand down and back off until Mikol arrived with reinforcements.

Rakkur didn’t know much more than that, I’m afraid, except that whatever Itaka told Mikol, he immediately set out after all of us. But we were maintaining communication silence in that area of space we were traveling through, so the messages didn’t get through to our ship, but only to Tariq’s on their secret military channel.

“Do you know where Lord Dominiko is now?”

“On this ship, somewhere. But that’s all I know.”

“I need to find out what’s going on, Rakkur.”

“But why? You’ll be leaving as soon as your parents arrive, and Davos and Mikol will deal with Lord Dominiko.”

“That’s what I’m afraid of. I don’t want him ‘dealt with.’ And by the way, I’m not leaving with my parents.”

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