Page 11 of Akur

Akur held his breath, his entire being freezing as he stared at the sight before him.

Itwasthem.

“Qrak,” E’lot murmured, a note of disbelief in his voice. “You did it. You found them.”

The Tasqal mother ship loomed ahead. But that wasn’t what had them both frozen, both staring at the sight before them.

“That’s a planet,” E’lot said. “But it’s not on any spatial chart.” His gaze shifted to Akur. “I would know. I’ve been studying every inch of the charts since we left on this mission.”

“I know.”

The silence in their shuttle remained now unbroken as they stared at the huge planet in the distance.

“This is it, isn’t it,” E’lot finally said. A statement, not a question. “The Tasqal base. The one the Restitution could never find.”

His comrade’s words floated heavily in the air, almost feeling like they were swallowing the surrounding oxygen. He didn’t dare answer. The enormity of this find was too much. Could they truly have been so lucky?

But the planet before them technically didn’t exist. Just like all the other impossibilities, this planet was an anomaly.

It had to be it.

The High Tasqals’ base was before them.

A dream of the Restitution for so many eons. To find it. Destroy it.End this. They needed a whole host of fighters and ships to flood the surface and finish this war once and for all. But instead of an army of rebels ready to rain vengeance, there was only an old shuttle and two rebels who didn’t know when to give up.

The planet before them seemed to pulse with an energy that defied the void of space around it. And the Tasqal mother ship they’d been chasing hovered like a sentinel, guarding the secrets of this hidden world.

He finally broke the silence, his voice barely more than a whisper. “If the Tasqals have managed to hide an entire planet, who knows what defenses they have in place.”

“Aye. So, what’s the plan?” E’lot grabbed his spear from where it was secured on the wall of the ship, his eyes still on the enemy vessel ahead, and that was when it became clear. They had no real plan. Not for this.

It was all instinct. Find the vessel. Rescue the females. And kill as many qrakking Tasqal minions as possible in the process. But this was so much bigger than they first realized. They were at the nest of the enemy. The place they’d searched for across many orbits. It was an opportunity they couldn’t let pass. No matter what.

“Even if we cloak,” E’lot said, hand tightening on his spear, “they’ll spot us soon. We can’t hide.”

“So we don’t.” Akur’s brows tightened as he stared at the planet. The readings on the screen showed that whatever was on the surface wasn’t an arid desert filled with nothingness. There was life down there. Civilization. A host of his enemies all in one place. “We go in close. Take out their side cannon and find a way onto that ship.”

“Get the humans before they reach the surface?”

“Affirmative. And then return to what’s left of the base. Gather as many of us as we can…”

E’lot’s gaze shifted to him, and the silence grew loud again because they both knew neither of them would be making it out of this alive. They could save the humans. But themselves…probably not.

“We wear the suits.” He was moving even before E’lot’s surprised grunt reached his ears.

“That is unwise,” his comrade said. “Those suits offer little protection—”

“There is no other option.” He was already by a pack, releasing the suit held within it before E’lot could finish. But he knew his friend was right. Again. If things went wrong with the suit, the wearer would be left to the mercy of the void. The suits were built for maintenance. Not for anything else. They offered protection from the void, protection from extreme temperature changes, but they weren’t combat suits. If things went wrong, the being protected inside could easily perish.

But he wasn’t any being. He was Akur. And he was Shum’ai. That had to count for something.

“Even you, with your regeneration, Akur, you can’t survive—”

“Imust.” Suit on, he turned to face E’lot again, staring at him through the transparent visor of the helmet now on his head. “Change of plans. You stay here.”

“What?”

Attaching his communicator, he made sure his blades were still strapped to his back and the blaster to his side. “Be my eyes.”

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