PRL Serials

Their rendezvous was interrupted. 

King Sao-Reyne had welcomed Maria, the Queen Ravelith, and Kal onto a large satellite with a mostly empty military base that was about a single cycle distant from Fhetat space and the Queen Ravileth led the negotiations for the faction of fighters from the Regions as Maria and Kal sat with her and King Sao-Reyne sat with three other Kings; Cras-myne Re of S16, Aid-o Minios of S7, and Urfrey Wyath of S12. Sao-Reyne and the Queen spoke genially while everyone else listened intently. Only Minios seemed agitated and he shifted around in his chair when the Queen interrupted Sao-Reyne or spoke like his equal. But Sao-Reyne welcomed help from the Regions and agreed to all of the Queen’s terms; they would only defend the Fhetat until the threat of the IP occupation was passed, they would do everything they could to minimize casualties, and the Kings would hold a vote about naming a Representative to the IP with no guarantee of sending one.

The negotiations lasted four full cycles, many of the disputes with the Queen’s terms coming from Minios, and then Maria sent a message to Whadgaf to bring the Region’s forces en masse. They estimated that their reinforcements would arrive well in advance of the arrival of Representative Pen Nuren and the IP Security Forces, who were expected to reach Fhetat recognized space in about eight cycles. 

“I reviewed your defense strategy,” the Queen said to Sao-Reyne when they were eating together during the negotiations. “It’s impressive, the outer ring should easily hold with more numbers.”

“You sound surprised that we have defense strategy,” Sao-Reyne said gently, but he was noticeably angry. “This is why Minios is so difficult. The other Kings and I understand that we need help and we have humbled ourselves to you, yet you steadily insult our intelligence. For Minios especially, you show no respect for our individual power and capabilities. I do not want to cause conflict, we are grateful for your presence here and we are eager to welcome your like-minded compatriots, but you must understand that friction will arise if you continue to underestimate us and our culture.”

The Queen felt horrible. She had been operating under the assumption that the Kings would be hard men to converse with, stubborn and eager to kill. But Sao-Reyne had been a true statesman, he had received her and her friends and kept the hostility of his fellow Kings from making her feel threatened.

“I regret my attitude and I will admit to my prejudices,” the Queen said delicately. “Please accept my apologies. I’d like to apologize to the other Kings as well.”

“That is not necessary. We agreed not to bring this up, to suffer it until the effort is done, but I truly enjoy our conversations and I want you to understand that the Fhetat is so much more than what you’ve read or heard about. We have made mistakes, what people haven’t, but we are more than our worst mistakes.”

The Queen was more formal when dealing with the Kings after that conversation and she was mindful of how she interacted with them. 

The forces of the Fhetat’s 16 sections were assembled in defense formations in two bands all around the Fhetat and Maria wondered if she would have a chance to visit it or if they would be too busy with battle to have any leisure. She liked the Kings and even though most were gruff, she managed some conversation out of the S16 King Cras-myne Re. He usually briefed on offensive scenarios that Representative Nuren could enact, and he was sure that they would come at them hard and fast with large ships and plenty of ammunition hoping to intimidate any resistance and force a quick surrender. But the Fhetat has sophisticated barrier technology that they use to sustain their vast numbers on the rocks circling the planet Fhet, and they have been busily building large invisible shields that can be activated at will and in any location within a prescribed distance of the source of the shield. They would use them to frustrate any powerful onslaughts and hopefully cut down on the numbers of advancing ships.

“Modern interstellar warfare rewards the rich and powerful,” King Re explained at a briefing. “The IP has access to Krognian resources, they have swarms of ships and even if the Queens there aren’t being charitable, they can still send a sizeable swarm at us, equipped with extremely powerful ordinance. If they want to surround us and obliterate us all, they could do it, and that is the logical move.”

King Re was right in his characterization of the situation, but ultimately, he underestimated his enemy, Representative Nuren who studied the Fhetat for years after their war, familiarizing herself with the enemy she decided to crush. She knew about the Fhetat’s shields and she knew that they would be at an advantage defending their home world, so she used her resources in unpredictable ways.

Maria was chatting up King Re when the alarms went crazy. There was an attack at the furthest outpost and proximity alarms were tripped as a hostile ship approached. It was larger than the outpost it barreled through and King Minios ordered a defensive unit of ships to intercept it. The unit managed to hit the ship with their weapons, but it exploded into much smaller ships that zipped by them extremely fast, like a swarm of Krognian ships that Re had described, and they flew to the outer, second ring of the Fhetat’s defenses. The four Kings were barking orders into communicators and Maria checked the progress of Whadgaf’s ship and the Region’s forces; it was chaos. Many of the ships that exploded from the large one, were destroyed, but a large majority managed to land on the large satellites that the Fhetatians constructed for defensive bases and there were reports of large monsters trying to take over the satellites.

“Whadgaf says she’s right behind what she thinks are IP forces,” Maria said to the Kings who didn’t seem to be listening, but she knew that they were because she heard them use the news as encouragement to the Fhetatians defending the satellites, the promise of reinforcements on the way.

“I want to go help,” Maria said. 

“There’s action coming our way,” Kal said. “There’s a couple of those ships headed right toward us, but they’re bigger. They’re fast, they’re right on top of us.”

There was a wrenching sound that made everyone fall silent, and the space where they stood was filled with sounds from their alarms and monitors. They all looked up as a hole was cut in the metal roof of the room and when the circle fell, two men in space suits descended down to stand in front of Maria and her friends, and the Kings. When they dropped their helmets, Maria knew they were human; a black and latino man. They had evil smiles on their faces.

“I thought there were more of you,” the black man said. “How many Kings did Osmium say there were, Ivan?”

“Sixteen,” Ivan said, “there are sixteen but I only count four with crowns, Clay. And the woman with the big beautiful head, but I imagine she’s not one of them.”

“How did you find us here?” Sao-Reyne said with a mix of utter confusion and complete disgust.

“Representative Nuren would like to have those crowns on your heads,” Ivan said. “You all can stop this occupation if you will turn over your crowns.”

Maria was surprised to encounter these Earthlings, to hear their real voices without need of the universal translator to understand them. Then Maria really noticed the crowns on the heads of the Kings for the first time as they each came alive with an aura of color. 

“The Representative should send stronger messengers,” King Minios said and the light blue energy from his crown seemed to surround him like a solid armour and he charged at the two. 

The black man charged Minios with a smile on his face and they punched one another so hard that the entire satellite shook. The Queen tried to get Maria and Kal to retreat, but Maria was intrigued by the fight. Everyone watched it, including the other Kings who were shocked that the Earthling could withstand the powerful might of a Fhet King. The Earthling seemed to swell in size and he was as big as Minios in his light blue armor. He took hard blows that shook the room and then launched blows that rattled Minios inside of his shell. Everyone wanted to know who would win. 

And then Maria noticed the monsters that had infiltrated the satellite. They were like deformed people and their space suits and helmets were ill-fitting. They moved silently around the room to surround them as King Minios did battle and she brought them to the attention of the Queen.

“Did they come with these two?” the Queen asked casually to maintain the air of ignorance of their presence. 

“They must have, should I steal some minds?” Maria asked and when the Queen nodded, she reached out to the closest of them and she instantly felt nauseated and wanted to vomit. Her mind was inundated with cruel images from Earth, homelessness, hunger, destitution, then being strapped down and pumped with chemicals and loaded onto a dark ship. But all of that chaos was controlled by something that directed it, kept it quiet and tamed it.

When she let go of the mind, the Queen was holding her and they were on the ground as it shook under the still raging battle.

“They’re from Earth,” Maria told the Queen. “Someone’s controlling them, probably these guys.”

“Well I don’t think they’ll need them,” the Queen said. “Those crowns are more powerful than I realized, but this man is exhausting the King. This will be over soon.”

As she said it, King Re yelled, “Everyone! get to an escape pod and rendezvous at the second location.” His crown was covered in an orange-red aura and as he yelled, he was surrounded in a flame that made the silent monsters shriek and he blasted a cone of fire at the black man beating King Minios that knocked him into the latino man and sent them tumbling into a crowd of monsters.

Maria was weak, but Kal picked her up as the Queen drew a sword that she used to slice their way to an escape room. The monsters were fierce and they barely made it inside of a room and engaged the escape protocols as the monsters pounded on the walls and dented the metal. When they were on their way, the Queen navigated the room, programming it to fly to the nearest safe location. They realized that King Urfrey Wyath was with them and he looked extremely angry.

“Did everyone make it off the ship?” the Queen asked.

“They must have,” Wyath said. “Sao-Reyne and Re will protect Minios. I can’t believe he needs it. We have to get to the secondary location. We have to tell the other Kings what happened.”