Page 78 of Guardian's Heart

Denying any of these charges would get us nowhere. So I upped my question, "What do you remember about your childhood?"

"Are you completely insane?" He shook his head and slowly rose; I copied his moves warily. My entire body screamed in pain, but I was ready for another tackle from him. As far as I was concerned, we could do this all day and all night if we had to.

By the looks of how slowly he stood up, he must have been in the same amount of pain as me. Good. Blood dripped from his nose, which I had broken during our scuffle, but he had the advantage of being able to use both of his eyes.

"What does that have to do with anything?" Vraax countered, and I took this as a win that we were talking and not hammering each other with our fists again.

"Everything," I stated simply.

"Get your hands up, Vraax," a new voice startled us.

Another Space Guardian had entered the hallway, his blaster trained on Vraax.

"Raasla?" I asked, hopeful at the sight of his mating marks, which matched mine, looking almost identical.

"Zaarek," Raasla greeted me with a nod.

"What is this? Some kind of traitor tattoo gang?" Vraax eyed Raasla, looking for an in, but Raasla too, was a pro. He kept enough distance with his blaster trained on Vraax to make it impossible for him to charge forward and disarm Raasla.

"What do you want to do with him?"

I wasn't about to have Raasla execute Vraax. The glare in Raasla's eyes told me that he would and I wasn't so sure that I wanted to partner up with someone like him. But we also couldn't let Vraax just go.

"To answer your earlier question, we are Darlams," Raasla said, startling me.

I had heard that name before.

And then I remembered. "The planet, Darlam, the one under quarantine?"

"The same." Raasla nodded.

"What by the celestial gate is a Darlam?" Vraax asked, unfazed that Raasla was ready to terminate him.

"Us," Raasla simply stated.

NOVA

Wringing my hands, Iwalked up and down the mostly empty storage area. Zaarek had bought many items at our last stop, things he was hoping to sell so we would have enough credits to get away, start over, for our investigation, whatever we decided to do. Hopefully Raasla and his friend would have a better idea about what that next step would be.

"What if Raasla doesn't make it in time?" I asked the Space Guardian, whom I had warily allowed entrance after he showed me his mating marks. First, I had assumed him to be Raasla, but he had introduced himself as Noodar when he entered the ship. Not much later, Nock joined us, saying that Zaarek was hunting the other Space Guardian down, whom we still didn't know if they were Raasla or a fourth player.

"Don’t worry, it’ll all work out," Noodar assured me. It didn't help, though. I kept the blaster in my hand, pointing it down, but I could bring it up and shoot Noodar within a fraction of a second if he made a move to shorten the distance between us. Which he hadn't yet. Respectfully, he stood several feet awayand leaned against a wall as if we were having a friendly chat instead of me holding a blaster ready to kill him.

I tried to get Zaarek on his comm once more, but he didn’t pick up. So I kept pacing for what seemed like an eternity, careful not to present my back to the Space Guardian. Every fiber in my being itched to get back on the bridge and look for Zaarek. I had barely broken into the system when Noodar showed up, distracting me. Now, my worry was back in full gear. I could hand the blaster to Nock and have him watch our guest. That thought, however, was short-lived.

"So, you are Noodar, the famous Space Guardian who didn't finish his mission," Nock provoked, reminding me why my idea was a bad one.

"I didn't leave it unfinished," Noodar responded with a hint of defiance, reminding me of Zaarek. "I mated her."

The mating marks! Of course!

"Where is she then?" Nock, like me, seemed to never stop when he bit into something.

"Safe and away from here," Noodar replied, and I caught the hint of worry for the woman in his eyes. He didn't like to be away from her. Not one bit.

"How did you manage to evade the Ohrurs for so long?" Nock kept firing his questions unperturbed.

"Pardon me if I don't want to answer your questions just yet, Nock." At the mention of his name, Nock perked up. I hadn't introduced the two, only told Nock who Noodar was. "Trust goes both ways. Let's wait for our friends, and then we'll chat."

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