Page 62 of Guardian's Soul

A loud beeping sound woke me. I didn't know how long I had been asleep, but I felt refreshed as I jumped out of bed to grab my comm, which I had left on the table. My heart rate increased as I opened the incoming messages. There was onlyone alarm I had set, and that was for when a message from Nock would come through.

I accidentally hit my foot against a chair before I sat down on it and opened the message.

A miniature holovid of the holostreamer appeared on the table. "Greetings, Tharaax. We left UX938 and are on our way to Zaarek's home planet. If what you said is true, you will know where to find us."

Frygg, I cursed and recorded my reply.

"Do not try to enter the vicinity of the home planet. Our mutual employers have put up a trap."

I sent it, hoping we were somewhere close enough to connect.

Ticks later, a response came in the form of a comm. I opened the line, all too happy to see Zaarek appear in my quarters.

"Tharaax," he greeted me, staring at my markings.

"Zaarek," I returned the greeting and stared at him just as curious. He must have left his shirt off on purpose so I could see his marks as well.

"This is Raasla, Noodar, and Vraax," he introduced the three other Space Guardians materializing. Two of them were marked as well. Only Vraax wasn't.

"I didn't know you linked up with the others," I voiced my surprise.

"One is still missing. Possedion hired Raasla, you, me, and a fourth whose name we haven't figured out yet."

"No problem. I'll get that name," I promised.

Zaarek looked surprised. "You still have access to the Ohrur database?"

"I hacked back into it, yes," I admitted and was unable to suppress a deep grin at my next words, "But I have something better. Possedion is myguestat the moment."

The other three Space Guardians exchanged stunned glances before Noodar said, "Well done!"

"I got some information out of him, too. They created a forcefield around Darlam. I'm still working on getting him to tell me a way around this."

"Sounds like we have lots to talk about," Zaarek interjected. "But let's not get too carried away just yet. This comm might be intercepted."

"No worries, I got this under control," the voice of a female I couldn't see called from the back.

"I'd still rather play it safe," Noodar agreed with Zaarek.

"Let's set up a meeting point," I suggested.

I gave permission to their onboard computer to access mine, and together, they found a halfway point for us to meet. According to my timeline, it would take us three days, four for them.

"Are you sure? That's a public place," I asked skeptically when I read the name of the space station the computers suggested.

"I don't know about you, but we need to restock on some things," Zaarek explained.

He was right. Hannah and I needed some things, too. I would have liked to get her some more inconspicuous clothes as well. What Lady Silla had sent was nice but looked Earth made and would draw even more attention to Hannah.

"All right, I'll see you soon." I ended the comm.

Hannah was still lying on the bed, fast asleep. I swore that female could sleep through an intergalactic war. I had never met anybody who slept this deeply. Well, I had never spent the night with anybody before either, so there was that.

I pulled up more screens and returned to the Ohrur database. Having the names of three of the four Space Guardians assigned to this mission should help me dig up the last one. And I did. His name was Xyrek Draalor, but that was all I could find. Despite my hacking, most of the Ohrur database was still closed off to me, something I would force Possedion to remedy as soon as Hannah woke.

I contemplated sending a message to Xyrek but decided against it. At least for now, until I had spoken to the others to see what they wanted to do. Out of curiosity, I entered Noodar's name first and discovered that he had been missing for a long time. He'd vanished during a mission where he had been supposed to protect a Mantarian princess named Luphelia. Both were actually named missing. Interesting. Especially because I had spied Soulweb Glyphs on his body as well as on the others, except for Vraax.

Whom I searched for next.

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