Original Elements: A Space Opera Adventure (Planet Origins Book 2) Read online

  Original Elements

  Lucía Ashta

  Awaken to Peace Press

  Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Holographic Princess

  Holographic Princess Preview

  A Note to Readers

  Also by Lucía Ashta

  About the Author

  Copyright 2017 Lucía Ashta

  All rights reserved

  This is a work of fiction.

  Cover design by Lou Harper of Harper by Design

  Awaken to Peace Press

  Sedona, Arizona

  www.awakentopeace.com

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  For the real Tanus, who strives to be a great man

  The heart is the only guiding compass that speaks truths louder than lies.

  One

  We’d ridden long and hard beneath the Suxle Sun. It was creeping lower in the sky, edging toward the horizon and another one of its fluorescent disappearing acts, when I finally thought we might be near the fishing cabin my father brought me to as a boy. We’d been lucky. We’d ridden through the southern wilds completely undisturbed thus far.

  Dolpheus and I cast sharp eyes all around us at all times. At first Lila had insisted on talking, even over the sound of the horses. Then Dolpheus shared some of the more gruesome of our experiences in the wilds. It wasn’t uncommon to encounter pockets of self-made communities that attempted to survive outside of King Oderon’s rule, nor was it unusual to run across the lone wanderer who often wasn’t in possession of the faculties necessary for proper society. It was also possible for rebels to abandon their usual territory of the desert wilds and travel this far south.

  Dolpheus told her a few tales of rebels that had attempted to take us by surprise when we were traveling through the wilds much as we were now. He made mention of the crude weapons they used and of their desperation to survive in a harsh world that didn’t make it easy. After that, we didn’t have to ask Lila to remain quiet so we could listen for the approach of anyone that might mean us harm. She did this on her own, wide-eyed for a while, until the exhaustion of travel without rest overwhelmed her.

  Dolpheus and I took turns riding with our captive. We didn’t want to risk giving Lila her own horse; it would have been too easy for her to bolt. She wouldn’t have gotten away from us. Dolpheus and I were excellent riders; we’d learned to ride horses shortly after we learned to walk. We just didn’t want the hassle of having to chase her down. In the wilds, any escape attempt might force us to chase her into areas safer avoided. At the very least, a chase would call more attention to us than was wise.

  However, Lila didn’t complain about having to ride with either of us. Right away, we discovered why. Even though she’d whined about wanting a horse to ride for a good portion of the walk from the splicing lab to the horse ranch, it was apparent that she knew very little about them. We rode the horses without saddles. No riding gear had been easy to grab when we took the horses from the paddock; it was likely that bridles, saddles, and the such were kept inside one of the ranch’s posts, where the elements couldn’t wear them down. Lila wouldn’t have been able to ride without a saddle, and after having observed her on horseback for almost eighteen hours, I wasn’t sure she would have been able to ride even with a saddle.

  In the frightened silence that followed Dolpheus’ dire warnings, it was easier to observe her with sympathetic eyes. She was clearly spent. She’d fallen asleep a few times sitting in front of me on the horse, her head resting against her chin, bobbing, until one of the horse’s steps jolted her awake. Our captive wasn’t as bothersome when she wasn’t talking without pause. After all, we’d taken her and bent her to our will, even if we hadn’t wanted to do so. Perhaps she behaved the way she did because she was scared. Dolpheus and I could be imposing to look at. As lifelong soldiers, this was intentional; a necessity we’d worked to grow into. It wouldn’t be unusual for a lone, petite woman to feel nervous in our company under the circumstances. Maybe she ran her mouth because she didn’t know what else to do.

  “I see something,” Dolpheus said, a few steps ahead of me and my cargo.

  I followed the direction of his gaze. It was hard to see what Dolpheus was pointing out. There, behind a particularly dense part of the forest, one too many straight lines for nature peeked out from an array of thick and thin tree trunks.

  Within sight there was also a very old giant tree. I looked over my right shoulder. A few hundred paces away, the ground began to climb. It continued until it reached a ridge, tall enough to survey our surroundings from all sides.

  “This must be it.” I nudged my horse ahead to weave through the thickness of the forest next to my friend. I looked at Lila. I couldn’t see her face straight on, but she seemed still to be sleeping. “What are we going to do with her once we get there?” I whispered. “I’ve been thinking, we can’t leave her tied up and we can’t gag her. We can’t be sure how long we’ll be gone. We can’t leave her in a way that she can’t fend for herself if something were to keep us from returning.”

  “Agreed.”

  I paused, struck by a thought. “What’s to keep her from running and telling on us the first opportunity she gets?” It was unusual for me not to have thought things through all the way when they involved military engagement. This wasn’t precisely military engagement, but it was close enough, and all of a sudden I was disappointed in myself for not having considered all aspects of our situation before traveling this far to a remote fishing cabin.

  “Don’t be so hard on yourself. You’re under a lot of stress.” Dolpheus knew me well. I hadn’t had to say a thing.

  “Stress isn’t unusual for us. My mind should be sharp no matter what. I should be able to foresee all complications. One woman shouldn’t cause me sufficient stress to distract me from rational thinking.”

  “Save Ilara.”

  “Save Ilara,” I said. He was right. Ilara led me to the edge of proverbial cliffs all the time. It was something I liked about her. Predictability was boring. Ilara could never be accused of being predictable.

  “It’s not that you didn’t think things through properly, Tan. It’s that you didn’t have to. That’s why you didn’t. She,” Dolpheus whispered while giving Lila a sidelong glance, “isn’t a real threat to us, even if she were to escape and betray us. You know that. We can rise above any of the results of her actions if that’s what it comes to.”

  A minute passed in which all I heard were the soothing steps of our horses, Lila’s deep breathing, and the chirping of happy birds in a network of branches that interconnected above us. Then, “I think the reason you didn’t think this through as you say is because you want us to be found out,” Dolpheus said.

  “What?”

  “I think that you don’t want to have to hide anymore. You’re not the kind of man that hides, and your affair with Ilara made you do lots of hiding. I think that you don’t give a shit ab
out what your father thinks anymore, or at least that you don’t want to. He hasn’t been a real father to you in a very long time, and you don’t want to tiptoe around his unreasonableness and his readiness to anger anymore. You want to be out in the open about all of this. You want to be the man you are without concealing it. You want to take strong, confident steps without worrying about who finds out about them and what he might think. You want to tell the King to go fuck himself. You want to stretch out and let your dick hang out, if you get what I mean.”

  I did get what he meant, but I wasn’t sure he was right. It was true that I hadn’t liked to have to keep my love affair with Ilara secret, but I’d understood the need for it. She was a princess of royal blood, in line to inherit the throne of all of Planet Origins. I was the son of a family with suspect prestige. I was the heir to a family name that had only just become rich and powerful. My noble standing had been more or less bought, not inherited through traceable bloodlines.

  I understood that Ilara needed to protect her reputation, for the sway she held over the people of O depended upon their view of her. She needed to be inviolable in their eyes. Her authority and actions needed to be beyond reproach. An affair with a nobleman, as I theoretically was, didn’t amount to the biggest of potential problems. The most significant obstacle to our love affair was that a royal princess was expected to be pure and virginal until she married. The people of O were naïve enough to believe her to be what she plainly was not. Anyone that looked with an objective mind would see that her sultriness couldn’t be denied and was beyond what a virginal maiden was capable of possessing.

  The most sensual woman on all of O wasn’t allowed to indulge in her sensuality, despite the rapidly advancing levels of degradation and depravity that infected the nobles and courtiers in particular. Ilara’s love for me couldn’t be made public until such time as we agreed to marry. And Ilara thought that her father wouldn’t approve of the match. Principally, the King knew that my father was trying to kill him and all of his family, and I had to admit that the ideal father-in-law for Ilara wasn’t a man looking for an opportunity to kill her.

  Damn it. Olph was right. I wasn’t neglectful in not anticipating what we’d do with Lila once we arrived at the fishing cabin. My mind hadn’t gone soft. My subconscious had been sneaky, taking matters into its own hands to accomplish my secret will.

  Fuck my father and fuck the King. I didn’t want to hide any longer. The woman I was keeping secrets for didn’t even live on the same planet as I did anymore. I wasn’t afraid of my father. If he grew furious, then he could choke on his anger. He’d already spewed enough emotion on me to last several of my long lifetimes. I wasn’t afraid of the King either. The worst he could do was order his minions to kill me, and I’d faced death many times before and escaped it. If I didn’t escape it next time, well, then I would die and the anguish of life would finally be over.

  Of course, I didn’t really want to die. I didn’t think I would. I wanted to hold Ilara in my arms again.

  And what of Ilara? Lila did pose a threat to her well-being if she were to run her mouth about Ilara surviving the assassination attempt. Still, who would believe one woman’s word over the King’s? Who would believe that the Princess was alive just because one woman said so, without any proof whatsoever? No one.

  “You’re right, Olph,” I said. “You’re totally right. I don’t give a damn about my father or the King anymore, if I ever did. I’m done hiding. I won’t announce my plans and make it easier for them to figure out what I’m up to. But I won’t choose my actions based on fear of their reactions. Fuck ‘em.”

  Dolpheus nodded, with as much enthusiasm as I’d seen him express in a while. “Fuck ‘em,” he said. Then he smiled brilliantly.

  Pussyfooting wasn’t our style.

  Two

  Lila was studying us with acute suspicion. “You’re just going to leave me here? Alone? Untied and free to leave?”

  “As we’ve told you, we’d much prefer it if you don’t leave. We’ll return for you as soon as we can. We’d like to see how we can help each other out. Maybe we can help you with your ambition to bring splicing to an end. You can help us return the Princess to her rightful place. It’d be helpful to have someone with inside information into splicing and the off planet transportation procedures,” Dolpheus said.

  “So you prefer that I not escape, but there’s nothing to prevent me from doing so?”

  “Right. If you choose to navigate the dangerous wilds on your own, without even knowing where you are or how to get back to the city, then there’s nothing that’s going to stop you,” Dolpheus said. “We’d prefer it if you don’t meet a violent and unnecessary end. But if that’s your choice, then we’ll live with it.” He shrugged in the universal gesture of apathy.

  I saw the nervousness come to life across Lila’s face. After Dolpheus’ stories and warnings, chances were high that she wouldn’t step outside the door of the fishing cabin without us. She was scared. Normally, I wouldn’t want to frighten a defenseless woman. However, if Dolpheus could neutralize the potential threat she posed to Ilara with no more than words, I wasn’t about to stop him. Even if I could live with the consequences if she spoke out about Ilara’s survival, it was better if she didn’t. The more cemented the idea of Ilara’s assassination was, the safer she was.

  “We’ll return to get you,” I promised. “And we’ll deliver you to safety once we do.”

  “How long will you be gone?” We stood in front of the cabin; she looked all around, skittish as a hunted animal.

  “We don’t know. Maybe a few hours. Maybe a few days,” Dolpheus said.

  “Where’re you going?”

  Dolpheus looked to me. It was my call whether we told her or not. We didn’t owe her involvement in our future actions. I didn’t see much harm in telling her, however. “To see the King and tell him a bit of what you told us. It should be enough for him to exchange information on Ilara’s location. I’d originally hoped he’d give me an approximation of her whereabouts. After all that you told us, he might tell me exactly where she is.”

  I realized then how much she’d helped me. It was harder to see when she was saying unpleasant things. It was much easier to see now, looking at the wide, frightened eyes and the small frame of a vulnerable woman. “Thank you. I do very much appreciate all that you’ve done to help us.”

  Surprised, she said, “You’re welcome.” Then, “I’ll wait for you to return for me. So come back.”

  “We will,” I promised again. I kept my promises. There were still those of us that were men of our word.

  “Water and food are under the table,” Dolpheus said. “It’s not much, but it’ll be enough to hold you until we come back.”

  Lila nodded. We’d already shown her the supplies, all of us relieved to discover that the fishing cabin was stocked for survival. With the nights as mild as they’d been lately, she’d be comfortable.

  “Now get in the cabin and stay there,” I said. “Bolt the door. Keep the shutters closed. And don’t open the door for anyone. Lock all the locks and keep them that way until we return.”

  “I have to be able to go out. What if nature calls?”

  “Don’t go out. For anything. No reason. Dolpheus wasn’t exaggerating. The dangers outside this cabin are real. You might be completely safe outside, but then, you might be in grave danger. It’s impossible to know with so many wandering across the wilds. There’s a chamber pot in the corner behind the wood stove. Use it.”

  Dolpheus and I nodded in farewell. She said, “Good luck” as if we were friends.

  “Thank you,” I said and smiled. I was surprised to see Dolpheus smile too.

  We waited outside the fishing cabin until we heard her bolt the door. Then we led the horses to the nearby stream. We secured them to a tree with rope long enough to allow them movement for grazing. Lila wouldn’t be able to do anything to care for them until our return. If someone spotted them and wanted to steal them,
nothing would prevent it—and I’d promised to return them to the ranch we’d borrowed them from. It was far from ideal, but I couldn’t see a better option. We couldn’t transport out of there with the horses, and we couldn’t afford the time it would take to ride them back to the ranch. Besides, we’d still need them to transport Lila once we came back. It was a shitty decision, to leave horses like this—easy pickings if anyone were to stray this far south—but it became just one more forced decision in a long line of them.

  “Shall we meet outside the Trilles Tavern?” I said. The Trilles Tavern contained a motley crew of regulars—drunkards and brutes—but it also offered decent soups with mostly recognizable ingredients and fresh-baked bread.

  “Sounds great. I could eat.” We could also both use some sleep, but that would have to wait.

  “See you there,” I said and closed my eyes, searching already for the stillness that was always there, just beyond my ordinary reach, waiting for me. If my friend said anything else, I didn’t hear him. I was ready to get out of there, to take the next step toward returning Ilara to Planet Origins and to my embrace.

  Three

  The din inside the Trilles Tavern was so loud that it was a challenge to hold a conversation. The Suxle Sun set while Dolpheus and I wolfed down our soup—the Trilles Tavern special, with more questionable ingredients than I remembered their house soup offering. The tavern was filled to bursting with two kinds of patrons: obnoxious drunkards and men working heartily toward achieving that status. I knew the Plune Moon would be shining its eerie purple glow outside, but inside the tavern you couldn’t tell. This wasn’t the kind of establishment that afforded glass panes, not even black ones. You couldn’t tell much of anything in the flickering light of candles as thick as pillars and nearly as eternal looking, with wax trailing down their sides, cementing them to the counters and tables.