Ali turned to glare at the sound of one of her taurran guards banging on her cell wall. It was a warning because he had noticed her tracing her fingers along the grooves in the wall. She waved her hands in a surrendering gesture before flumping back down onto the uncomfortable bunk and considered having another nap. Little did the guard know that she'd already worked out that the only way out of her cell would likely kill her in the explosion, and if it didn't the guards almost certainly would.

She drummed a beat on her stomach with her fingertips as she realised she had lost all track of time. The logical conclusion was that they were heading back to Kentar to present her to Barker, but how much longer would she had to wait? She blew out a breath as she resigned herself to staring at the ceiling because she didn't even really have enough room to pace off some of her anxious energy.

Eventually another pair of taurran guards came to usher her from the cell and back to the beamer. They rematerialised on another ship and they frogmarched her to an observation deck. She was greeted by the sight of Bert Barker looking out over the view of what used to be Vekanta's monument, though it was barley recognisable under all the machinery and equipment surrounding it.

Barker looked up as the door opened and nodded to indicate that the guards could release their prisoner. They let go of Ali who happily took a few steps away from them, but they didn't leave the room, staying at the door to watch her. She glared at them because it meant she could ignore the man looking at her for a few moments longer. "I'm guessing we're going to skip the pleasantries?" Barker half joked.

Ali finally turned around to fix her glare upon him instead. "I don't think you want to hear what I have to say to you," she agreed as nonchalantly as she could manage, at odds with the expression on her pale face.

Barker smiled despite himself, before half turning back to the view. "Tell me, Alice, do you know what lies under that statue?" He asked gesturing to it.

Ali didn't move towards him. She wanted to try and subdue him, but with the two guards nearby she didn't have a chance to do so before they took her out instead. "Something you want," she replied instead.

"Your powers of deduction are unparallelled, aren't they?" Barker mocked. Ali just raised an eyebrow to ask if he really thought that would get to her. "How much of the history of your people do you know?" He asked, and if he expected an answer Ali was happy to disappoint him. "As it turns out not all the reading material I was given in prison was as dull and uninteresting as I expected. Vekanta is fondly remembered by your people, the symbol of a united Kentar, but you do rather seem to forget about her life-partner. Where Vekanta saw potential, unity and promise he saw a threat against the planet he had sworn to protect. To that end he built a weapon, one so powerful it could destroy a whole planet."

"We're going down this road again, are we?" Ali asked. "Didn't expect you to become a cliché, Bert."

"You're not going to question the viability of such a weapon?" He seemed surprised at her approach.

"Remind me why you were in prison? Oh, that's right, you were going to destroy a whole planet," Ali pretended to remember. "By now any disbelief I have at the situation is immaterial compared to the possibility that you will actually achieve it this time." For a second Ali thought he looked surprised that she still believed in him - even if it was behaviour she didn't want to encourage - before he hid it well behind a neutral expression he had spent a lifetime perfecting. A flicker of sympathy passed through her as she remembered that that was the kind of respect his early life had taught him to take rather than earn. Not from her though, but she felt his bitterness from when she'd refused to join him.

"You still think you can stop us?" A voice asked from behind where Ali was stood. After spending the last couple of years on her own trying to make a living in the less reputable areas of space, her senses were well honed and she had known someone was there. She didn't even turn. Klandra was slightly disappointed with the lack of reaction but ignored it and simply slinked over to where Barker stood.

Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author.

"Alice, I don't believe you've been introduced to princess Klandra," Barker introduced.

"Well, well, well, your latest bit on the side is a taurran princess, Bert, you're moving up."

"Bit on the side?" Klandra barked - it was the sound taurrans made when they laughed, "I am more powerful than he is."

Ali raised an eyebrow. "Then why do your people need him?"

Klandra hissed at Ali as Bert laughed. Klandra should have known better than to think she could put Ali off balance so easily. "Our alliance is built on complementary power and knowledge."

"It won't last. At some point your resources will be pooled and all one of you has to do is kill the other and you've got everything you need for your own cause," Ali figured. "Now, as fun as it would be to take bets on when this lovely arrangement will meet it's end, I don't think that's why I'm here."

"No, you're here to help us activate the weapon array," Barker explained calmly.

For once Ali was stunned into silence for a few moments. "Why would I do that?" She finally demanded.

"Because we don't need your cooperation," Klandra replied and if Ali didn't know any better she would have thought the princess sounded smug. "We just need your blood."

Ali glared at Klandra. "I never finished telling you about the weapon. You see, Vekanta's husband wasn't worried about a united Kentar, per se, it was where that kind of acceptance could lead. The dilution of culture," Barker continued, "the ultimate integration of two civilisations."

"Hybrids," Ali finished with tired, exasperated acceptance. Why not? It wasn't like she hadn't received her fair share of vitriol about that. It was why she didn't advertise the fact.

"Half breeds," Klandra corrected as she signalled the guards.

In that split second Ali knew she had one option - run. Even if she succeeded to overpower either Klandra or Bert she wouldn't be able to get both and the other would just carry on. If she was lucky enough to get off the ship - or base, or whatever this was - she could at least hide out somewhere on Kentar, maybe. She ducked under the outstretched arm of the first guard, but the second wrapped his fingers around her forearm and tugged her back. She spun with it and, instead of punching, she headbutted him whilst reaching for his rifle with her free arm. He reared away from her with a raspy hiss of pain and she was able to use that to yank the rifle from his hands. She fired blindly towards the other guard, missing completely as she ducked under the shot that Klandra aimed at her. She had no cover if she made a run for the door.

Ali used her forearm to control the rifle of the other guard, pushing it aside as she shot at Klandra's weapon, and the taurran princess was briefly impressed - in an outraged kind of way - as her gun skittered across the floor in smouldering pieces and circuitry. The guard whose gun she'd stolen attempted to ambush her from behind but she ducked under his outstretched arms, kicked his knee to knock him off balance whilst using the rifle's side to push against the other's back.

As both guards stumbled to the ground Ali took her chance and sprinted towards the door, barely making it three steps before a sharp pain in her head made her stumble and falter as she tried to push back against the intrusion. Before she even had a chance to recover a burning pain in her thigh sent her tumbling to the floor with a shout of pain as a guard shot her. She landed heavily on her forearms. Defeated she didn't fight against the guards as they hauled her back to her feet and back towards Klandra and Barker. What could she do? Even if she was able to fight the two guards off again, the pain in her leg would prevent her getting far enough.

Klandra strolled towards them. "Bert was right about you, you are trouble," she observed as her fingers trailed down Ali's forearm before gripping the back of her hand to force Ali's palm upright. Klandra brought a knife quickly and sharply across it and Ali couldn't help but wince from the pain. She appeared to be in no hurry as she holstered her knife at her thigh before retrieving a phial and letting the blood from Ali's palm drip into it.

It wasn't long before the princess appeared satisfied with what she had and sealed it and passed it to Barker. She turned back to Ali as she reached for the knife again. "Don't kill her yet," Barker suggested casually. Klandra turned to him in confusion. "I want to see just what I can achieve with this tetnar," he explained with a sly smirk and Ali found the will to glare at him for that. "I want her under heavy guard, if she tries to escape, kill her."