Page 1 of Shadow's Chosen

Before

The city below sparkled. Its blue and orange lights spread across the planet like an infectious growth across skin. A ship floated above it in space, its nose aimed straight at the land below as if ready to strike the atmosphere and plunge. Inside, from the pilot's cabin, a dark purple shadow in the shape of a man watched the city pass by.

"Vesra is ready," came a voice. The shadow moved. It left the cabin and headed down the passage. As a door slid open into a circular, windowless room, the shadow stepped inside and waited for the door to close before striding over to the central terminal. With swift fingers, it accepted the call. The lights in the room dimmed as a holographic display blinked to life. A man, as still as a corpse, sat in a room unseen. His black eyes stared down the length of his sharp nose to judge the shadow before him.

"You have found the humans then?" said the seated man in a low, grated voice.

The shadow slowly raised a hand to its head and tapped two fingers at its ear.

The man leaned back. "Good." He studied the shadow carefully. "You never disappoint, do you, Nezka?"

Nezka lowered his arm. "Not you. Someone else maybe."

The man smirked, but his eyes remained cold. He took up a cup at his side but did not drink. "How many?"

"The tracker reads maybe twenty, thirty tops."

"Any women?"

Nezka hardly moved. "It's uncertain. The city is not their own, we know that much. My guess is they are an expedition team new to the planet. They are trying to make ties with the people here."

The man tapped at his glass. Nezka waited a few seconds before saying, "Do you still wish them extracted despite the deal being lost?"

The man's hairless brow lifted. "So you have heard about the nillium prince."

Nezka crossed his arms. "He’s dead. And the houses are fighting for power in Xolis."

"It’s true." The man's eyes narrowed as he finally lifted his cup with a pale gray hand and took a drink. As he set the cup down, his eyes brightened. "But despite this rather surprising turn of events, the nillium are still desperate in their need for children. The fighting will end with death, and they will become more aggressive in their need to repopulate. The humans will be the nillium’s most precious resource. And our greatest bargaining weapon. I want them." The man's face darkened, his mouth set in a hard frown. "Get them to me. Whatever it takes."

Nezka bowed his head and moved back from the terminal until only the orange glint of his eyes could be seen in the dark. "Whatever it takes."

One

Elise sat on the top of the terrace wall, one knee drawn up to her chest while the other dangled off the edge, looking down to the bottom of a rocky beach with crashing waves. Ahead, the sun's light was beginning to brighten the horizon, a pale white beam illuminating a sickly green sky. Elise sighed, fist under her chin, watching in disappointment at another dull sunrise. She knew what to expect, and yet every morning she came out like clockwork to watch. It was her one moment for peace, but she preferred a beautiful orange glow under a blue dome over what she saw now. Terraformed planets were never that impressive to begin with.

Elise closed her eyes as the light hit her (a cold light she noted), and a soft breeze touched against her hair. She imagined the sound of laughter and her sister's voice in the distance along with the crash of waves. A memory of her and her sister running with sand kicking up her legs floated into her mind. She inhaled and a salty, not so pleasant ocean scent filled her nostrils. The memory faded quickly.

"Didn't take you for much of a meditator, Stirling," came a familiar voice behind her.

Jerico.

Elise couldn't help smiling as she opened her eyes and turned her head to see her teammate walking toward her, a broad shouldered, dark-complected man with a grin plastered on his face in greeting. Elise brushed tendrils of brown strands out of her eyes and spat out the ones that got stuck to her mouth as the breeze whipped her hair into her face. "Just in the mornings," she replied. "And I'm not really good at it."

"Yeah, me neither," said Jerico, shrugging, his smile dropping slightly. "They are ready for us, just so you know."

Elise stood, not so gracefully, brushing away a small dusting of sand that had somehow managed to stick to her white shirt and leggings. "Think I got time to dress?"

"I wouldn't worry about it."

Elise looked over to see Jerico wearing his black pants and gray shirt, sweat forming on his collar. He'd clearly been out on a run when he'd been called in. If the others were waiting too, it meant they were wanted now, not later.

"Let's do this then," Elise said and moved to follow him. They made their way across the terrace and passed a clean-cut lawn where a large statue of a gray and silver star with a heart cut into its center stood on display, the words "Grayhart" written beneath it along with "Discover. Learn. Connect." in small letters below. The large glass-sided building towered just ahead, alone against the dull cast of light brightening the sky. They passed beneath a covered archway before entering through a set of doors into a large foyer with a security desk at its center. The guard nodded in greeting as they walked on to the elevators.

"You think it'll be a boundary mission?" Elise asked as they took the elevator up to thirty. They had only been on one of those before, but it had been a false lead. No outsiders or newcomers, just gyda exiles and runaways outside standard earth territories.

"Doubt it," Jerico said, looking straight ahead. "Probably a stranding."

"Another?" Elise said, looking at him and shaking her head. "I hope not. You think they would learn by now they need security on those ships."

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