Cylo smirked.“He can climb down, can he not?”
“I suppose.”Olin swiped his wrist over Cylo’s.“Comm this Zucis.Set it up.”
“Why me?”
“Malo instructed me to collect the Durn?I was not aware I was entrusted with this.”Olin chuckled.“Fyca, were you aware of my new responsibilities?”
Fyca glanced away from the display vids while his fingers flew across the console.“It is well deserved.”
Cylo scoffed at their teasing.“Enough.I shall comm our target and have him prepare for our arrival.”
“Should I secure it?If secrecy is required?”Fyca gestured to the biggest display vid dominating the forevids.
“Wait.Let me ensure he is not surrounded by an enemy.”Cylo typed a quick message from his O.D.I.and settled into the nearest comfy.A zing shot up his arm.At a glance, he caught the gist of the message and signaled to Fyca to make the connection.
“Greetings, Etterian.”A blue-skinned, white-haired, and white-eyed male bowed his head.“How may I assist?”
“I have been instructed to escort you off Yithia.”Cylo rose out of the comfy, clasped his hands behind his back, and squared his shoulders.
“Indeed.”Zucis smiled.“Your Sub-Commander Aaro is honorable.”
Cylo wasn’t about to claim all Etterians embodied that trait when it was far from the truth.“Data Officer Olin will share our plan.See to it that you are in place at the correct time.”
“I will be there.”
When the comm ended from the Durn’s side, Cylo had no right to hiss in offense.A Durn was to be revered, but like Etterians who didn’t all value honor, so, too, should Durns not expect instant respect.
“How long?”he muttered.
“In four hours, we will breach Yithia’s atmosphere.”Olin angled his head.“At midday.Might be wise to let the weaker sunlight of ‘night’ shade us.”
“And give those Yithian xemi a chance to hurt the females?”Cylo leveled a glare at Olin.“No.Time is crucial.”He gripped Fyca’s shoulder in passing.“Just fly the kuta lower than their suns’ light can reach.”
He headed along the passage to the common.Operatives Nhyht, Unher, Durok, and Koddo gathered around the table.“We have a short, important mission above and beyond the Earthian females.Prepare for battle.You have four hours.”
Nhyht leapt to his feet.“Stealth?”
“In a way.I am hoping we do not need to leave the kuta.”
“But plan for the worst,” Durok said, lowering his chin to his chest.“This may be a chance to die for Etteria.”
Silence fell upon the room like the numbing effects of Foutas venom.
“The void cannot have you just yet,” Koddo said, patting Durok on the back.“We save the females first, then you may claim your honorable death.”
“Dying on Yithia?”Cylo forced a smile.“Let us find you a worthy opponent.We shall hunt the galaxies for such a creature.”
“My thanks,” Durok said, gazing at the males gathered.
Cylo tapped the med-gun in his pants pocket and nudged his head at Qaff in a silent request for Durok to get scanned.If the male’s void threatened to consume him, Cylo needed to know how soon.At Durok’s nod, Cylo abandoned the common for his quarters in the barracks.Irritation had him pacing the narrow confines when what he wanted to do was roar at the delay.Instead, he controlled his breathing and willed himself to calm.In four hours, this issue would be behind him, and if all things went well, a Durn would be aboard the scimitar.
Fully armed, Cylo’s arms gleaming with the mini daggers he’d strapped there, he strode into the kuta’s compartment and settled behind Fyca.Shooting out of the bay was done in silence, with the shuttle’s well-maintained engines humming.
“If we had stealth,” Olin said into the quiet.
“Indeed.”Cylo grimaced.“Maloid has perfected it.”
“That is recent.We have yet to adapt, to learn how to detect them.”
