Chapter One
Idiot.
Azazel grimaced, rubbing the side of his head with his eyes closed. The dull pain of a relentless headache made him moan.
You should know better than to teleport to somewhere you’ve never been before. Especially to an alien spaceship traveling at light speed to goddess-knows-where.
Wouldn’t his tease-loving brother, Arakiba, love to see him now? Frozen in agony, unable to protect himself if anything threatened him. He could just imagine the endless harassment he’d have to endure… from all four of his siblings.
Sucking in a fortifying breath, he forced his eyes to flutter open. The blur of unconsciousness lifted just enough to let the world above him seep in. His fuzzy gaze drifted to the cracked ceiling.
Grime clung to it in thick smears. Dark stains etched across the surface like scars that time and neglect brought. Even a slow drip from one of the cracks above him hesitated, as if waiting to fall.
Forcing his sluggish mind to function, he frowned. Maybe once his mind cleared, he’d figure out if he was on the ship he’d aimed for. The uncontrollable twitch of his fingers against the hard, icy surface beneath him made him grimace. Turning his head slowly, he groaned as his muscles resisted with a dull ache at each movement. With a grunt, he wiped the unexpected sweat from his brow. Blinking against the gloom, he scanned his surrounding for anything familiar. But the only thing clear was he’d landed in some kind of dingy corridor.
Well, hopefully he’d made it where he meant to go. Before he teleported, he envisioned an unused place to land on the ship that held the essence of the human woman he’d latched on to. Not that he imagined it’d be in some hallway. His gaze returned to the drip waiting to fall above him. The rough, cracked, and battered surface around it testified to its neglect. Taking a deep breath, he let a moment of serenity in to calm his mind before panic snuck in.
Focusing, he concentrated on controlling his breath. After a few moments, he rubbed his eyes with the heels of his palms, then let his arms flop beside him. Damn his head for the continued pounding. Guess he was lucky a headache was the only thing he suffered from. Teleporting straight from the gangster planet FiPan to a spaceship traveling through deep space could’ve ended up worse. Even with the ship at a minimum light-speed setting, he and his spider-bot AI companion, JR14, were lucky to survive in one piece. He grunted. Why he thought it’d be effortless was beyond him. That’s what he got when he let his pride take over—showing off in front of his brothers. No matter how much introspection he practiced, once in a while he couldn’t help himself when he gave into the petty temptation of grandstanding.
Something to consider later. Much later.
For now, he’d better make sure his android partner survived the experience. There, in the middle of his closed palm, lay JR14. Azazel widened his fingers. The bot was curled in the center with his spindly legs tucked under his bulbous body.
The bot opened his two primary rounded optical sensors on the front of his head and looked back at him. His eyes held a serene sky blue. His spider frame of gold and red gleamed in the low light, a testament to his advanced design.
JR14 stood on his sleek, eight, spider-like legs that tapered with mechanical precision. The bot turned his rotund head around as if to analyze where he was. Besides his arachnid-like legs, he had shorter front limbs that ended with metallic claws, which now clicked. A sure sign he was analyzing the situation.
“Are you well, JR14?” Azazel asked.
“Confirmed. My systems are functioning at optimal capacity.” The droid responded as his iridescent wings slid out of the concealing panels on his back. The bot fluttered off his palm and landed on Azazel’s chest. His wings once again folded out of sight under his red exoskeleton. “Teleportation was successful. However, your vital signs indicate post-transit disorientation. Recommendation: stabilizing self promptly. Sentient organics are notoriously inefficient under duress. This could place us in unnecessary danger from the hostiles of this ship.”
Azazel did his best to focus on the small android now poised on his chest. Close enough he might go cross-eyed.
“I’ll be alright, JR14.” He reassured his companion. “Just give me a moment to clear my head.” Sighing, he closed his eyes once again and concentrated on stabilizing the spinning wheel in his head that made him dizzy and nauseous. After a few precious moments, he took a chance and opened his eyes again. He breathed a sigh of relief. The mind-fog had faded somewhat. His sentient AI companion hadn’t moved, those two main ocular orbs still trained on him, their glow now a soft red. The bot’s eight pointy legs dug lightly into the shirt of his tunic.
“Query: Azazel, is your physical equilibrium restored?” JR14’s monotone voice had a low pitch. “As previously stated, suboptimal performance compromises mission efficiency.”
“You are so right,kalu.” Azazel swallowed with a dry throat.
Without a word, JR14’s wings slid from beneath his outer exoskeleton on his back, and he whirled to lift himself off Azazel’s chest and buzzed in front of his face. “Kalu, an ancient word, means a close, loyal companion or friend.” After that statement, the bot zoomed to settle on Azazel’s stomach. “While my designation of JR14 remains more efficient for identification,” JR14 continued. “I accept the notation for future usage.”
At least the droid was in a better position for Azazel, so going cross-eyed wasn’t going to happen. He grunted in acknowledgment. But, pleasantries aside, it was time to gather information instead of lying here doing nothing.
“JR14, can you interface with the computers on this vessel and determine our location?” He glanced up at the depressing ceiling. “And any other pertinent information you deem necessary?”
“Affirmative,” JR14 stated as a soft, pulsating effect shone in his two primary lenses, now emitting faint flickers of glowing amber.
While the bot did as he asked, Azazel opened his senses to determine what he could. He had to be on a small ship that housed… one other person? Being? A wave of harsh malevolence hit him. It was cold, hard, and had a strong sense of psionic abilities.
Azazel shut down his psychic senses before the entity connected with him. His heart raced. He hadn’t felt anything that powerful since he was a child when he accidentally touched his mind with one of the previous slaves the Akurn scientists created and tried to destroy. The being, known as a Titan, almost gained control over his mind to force Azazel to free him. The only thing that saved him was mentally calling his brothers to come and help him. Joining their minds together allowed him to snap away from the creature’s clutches. He’d vowed to never let something like that happen ever again.
The sinking fear from the memory nudged his inner beast awake. Azazel sucked in a breath at the new threat. With his fingers clenched, he tightened his hold on that hidden part of himself he kept locked down deep inside, where it belonged. Long ago, he vowed to never, ever let the thing loose. With a final harsh shove, he pushed that unpredictable part of himself back into the dark pit he’d created for it when he was young.
“JR14,” he croaked. Clearing his throat, he tried again. “JR14, are there any Krystalii on this ship?” That would explain the powerful wave of intense psychic energy he’d touched.
The Krystalii were the reason he was here in the first place. The crystalline alien race was from another dimension vastly different from the one he lived in. The sentient beings were composed of various mineral and crystalline structures and were ruled by a brutal dictator with the name Lord Baelon, of all things. Baelon, a being made of rough blue Apatite was an extremely powerful psychic as well as a ruthless despot who ruled his people through fear and intimidation.
For reasons no one understood, Baelon had targeted this dimension. And not to just strip it of its natural resources. He’d also grown obsessed with capturing human women for his twisted experiments.
