Page 1 of 3 Secrets to Love
Prologue
With a tap on their comm screen, Rae inputted the final file of crucial information. It was then transferred into the computer chips linked to the brains of the bonded trio laying on the tables, the data the new clones were created to carry. Rae had spent the last few lunar cycles holed away in their lab, working on the three of them without being detected. But they knew their time was up. Someone had found out. Someone who didn’t want the information shared with others, especially with those on the planet Yatak, or with anyone part of the Council of the Quadrants. The safeties they put on their comms had been triggered, as well as those protecting the perimeter of the lab. The information they’d transferred into the clones would lead to Kalpier losing favor across the quadrants, and many individuals would be fined and forced to complete restorative justice. But the secrets the bonded trio carried were destined for a future time, a period during which the secrets would be well received by all, and the one bearing the lineage they concerned would be ready to bring about change. The transformative justice their home planet really needed.
Rae trusted their creations to determine that time period, when to share their secrets, for Rae would be long gone by then.
When the upload completed, Rae unplugged the neural wiring to the trio, leaving them with only their breathing tubes. They didn’t have time to wake each of the three up before sending them to their individual destinations. Rae simply hoped they left Kalpier in time and survived the journey.
One by one, they wheeled the lab tables over to a single propulsion jet then loaded one of the bodies inside. Rae didn’t propel them into the cosmos after each one was loaded but waited until all three were ready and the jets had reached fulllaunch speed. They couldn’t let them go until they were sure each of them would survive.
Suddenly, red flashes lit up the room. A perimeter line had been cut, not just crossed. Someone was coming. They didn’t have much time left.
Rae powered down all equipment except for the jet launchers. Every joule of energy was redirected to the jets. If they didn’t reach their destinations, Rae had sacrificed the last months of their life for nothing.
When the canopies closed on all three jets and the launch panels turned green, they breathed a sigh of relief. They were so close to completing their mission.
An alarm blared through the room, piercing Rae’s ears. They winced but resisted the urge to cover their ears. Another perimeter had been breached. It was just a matter of seconds before those trying to stop Rae reached the lab. They had to move fast.
Rae slammed their palm onto the button that lifted the door to the hangar. While the front of their lab was accessible by a winding road up the side of a mountain, the rear hangar gave way to a cliff straight down. The perfect place to launch the jets from.
Rae double-checked the destinations of each jet then launched them into the skies and the space beyond.
“Goodbye, my children. May the universe be always with you.” Rae waved as they watched the jets rocket past the limits of the atmosphere and into the galaxy beyond. While they had helped create many other Kalpierenes in their lifetime, none had been a special as the last three. The trio had a purpose, not made simply to fulfill a government contract.
When Rae could no longer see the jets, they turned back to the lab with the heavy exhale. It was time. They closed the hangar door then gathered all their comms and chips that helddata into a pile in the center of the lab. With the proper amount of alezenide alophorate measured into a large glass beaker, they moved the chemical to rest on the pile. And with one final inhale, they lit their fire stick and dropped it into the beaker.
The blast hit so fast, they didn’t feel the shards of glass slicing into their body and killing them instantly before the heat of the fire could torch their skin.
The lab and all the information it carried burned up in a massive fireball, blowing out the walk-through door and speeding through the tunnel that led out into the light. No one, including the two Kalpierenes who had been the leads in the party sent to stop Rae, had survived.
For several star cycles after, authorities combed the rubble left in the lab for any trace of the information Rae had shared, and the destination of the jets, but they came up empty. They had traced the jets on radar while they remained within the atmosphere, but a cloaking shield had been activated on the three once they made it to outer space. No way to track them after that. And the Kalpierene government refused to get the Council of the Quadrants involved, fearing the backlash of the information contained in those jets. They decided to keep the betrayal of their top scientists to themselves and quietly search for any sign of the destination of those jets and their cargo. No matter how long it took.
Chapter One
Xacalla
A twinge of excitement cascaded through my body. It always did on the day I got to tell hopeful children that their wish was about to come true and even more so on the day I helped make their wish happen. I worked for the Four Corners Wish Foundation, helping to fulfill the dreams of underprivileged and critically ill children from across the quadrants. A lonely job at times. I rarely worked with the same group for each mission. But it was worth the few cons to bring joy to children and their families at such a low time in their lives.
As soon as the shuttle door opened, I grabbed my bag and headed out into the spaceport on the other side. I was supposed to meet a hover cab to take me to my next destination. I’d been a “wish maker” for over five star cycles, but my new assignment was the first to take me to Jenegath. Although we granted wishes to children from every planet within the quadrants, there were some we avoided landing on. Jenegath was one of them. Known to be home to many mercenary groups and smuggling rings, we never granted wishes on the planet and usually arranged for the children who lived there, along with their family, to meet us on nearby Wolbow. But my boss, Zenda Balai, had made other arrangements for my next wish fulfillment.
At the entrance, I spotted a tall and beefy Jenegathian with slicked-back dark hair and black, flame-tipped arms with blue veins glowing from under the skin. Wearing black slacks and a short-sleeved black, button-down shirt, he held a comm tablet with my name flashing on the screen. “Miss Xacalla.” He grinned when he spotted me, obviously knowing more information about me than I knew about him. Because I knew nothing.
“I’m Chikada.” He gave me a slight bow. “Your escort while you’re here.” Even though the chip implanted behind my ear translated his words, I still caught his thick accent. All Jenegathians I’d met before had been on Eurebly, and their inflection seemed to disappear after living in the vastness of cultures on the planet, as did my own. I didn’t know if anyone on Eurebly had an original accent, including those indigenous to the planet in the center of the quadrants.
“Thank you.” I nodded in return and let him take my bag out to the waiting hovercar.
“How was your flight?” He drove through the narrow, dimly lit streets of the main city, Halbun, the whole area around me a stark contrast to when we first left the spaceport. I was more concerned with whether we headed the right direction that it took me a moment to comprehend he’d asked me a question.
“Um, good. Uneventful.” I leaned forward from the back seat to get a better view of our surroundings through the front windshield. “Are you sure we’re going the right way?”
Chikada chuckled from deep in his belly. “Now, Miss Xacalla, you have no need to worry with me by your side. But the children you’re going to meet are special children. We have to keep their whereabouts a secret.”
His answer confused me. Yes, the three orphans who had only recently been reunited with each other were special. But if their whereabouts were protected, why would any of their caregivers apply for their wish to be granted? Our “dream stories” were always made public to get more corporate and individual sponsorships and participation from celebrities in wish fulfillments. Yet, this one seemed quite different from the beginning.
It wasn’t long after that Chikada pulled into a dark alley before driving deep into an unlit underground garage. He’d mentioned the safety of the children, but I worried about myown. I was on a strange planet with an unknown escort and had no idea where he’d taken me. When I glanced at my comm, I had no signal, no way to contact anyone if I needed to be rescued. And no way for anyone to track my whereabouts.
Suddenly, a light turned on above us to my right, and subsequent lights followed in a row, until the entire space could be seen. The gleam of the white-painted garage with clean floors and walls, and several pristine hover cars in a row, came as a stark contrast to the area we’d come in from. Two Jenegathians in black suits, with the same slicked-back hair, waited at the far-left corner in front of what seemed like a door to a tube system. But I didn’t think a planet like this one would have tubes.
Chikada opened my door before I realized he’d left the vehicle and paused to escort me to the waiting tube. I had no idea where it would take me, but everything about the assignment was so different than any previous one. I cautiously expected many more surprises.
