Vengeance

Chapter 1

I lived on a planet named Zucar. It had a similar environment to that of the planet Earth, although Zucar was much cleaner. The air was fresher, the animals healthier, and the plants greener.

At least, it used to be. Now the planet was in much rougher shape, with broken buildings and rubble always in eyesight and plants and animals scarce. The air was still clean enough to breath, although after fourteen years it wasn't nearly as good as it had been previously.

My loathing for the planet Earth and the Earthlings, or humans as they called themselves, went deeper than the surface of my skin. They had stolen my older brother from me when I was much younger. They figured it would keep us from attacking them, and it finally put an end to the slaughter of my people.

My name is Zara, and I am a princess. My parents are the queen and king who rule over all the Zucarians. A few weeks ago, they had become deathly ill and I had taken over running the kingdom for them, at least until they recovered, and I was willing to go to any lengths to find my brother while I had the opportunity.

"Zara, what are you doing?" my younger brother, Zeno, whined as he walked into the room. "Aren't we leaving soon?"

I was staring through a large, cracked window in our dark cobblestone castle, watching the fleets of ships return for the day. I counted them as they came in, making sure all the ones that left had reappeared. I had no desire to start a war with another species, especially right now. If any of the ships were missing, I would have to assume the trade offer was rejected and my people killed, starting a rivalry. I didn't need that right now. My only interest was with Earth.

I turned my attention to Zeno, who wanted desperately to find our brother with me. I wouldn't allow him to come. Our alliance with Earth was tense, and I refused to put him in a potentially dangerous situation, especially now that the Earthlings were focused more on military power, with one family ruling over them all.

"Zeno," I spoke to him, careful with my wording. "I can't leave here without someone to look over the other Zucarians while I'm gone."

"But I thought you said we would go together!"

I hadn't ever said that, but pointing that out now wouldn't do any good, so I went with it.

"I know, but I need someone I can trust to be here. You're the only one capable of leading in my place."

He stuck out his bottom lip in the beginning of a tantrum but after a moment of thought, he nodded curtly. "Fine," he muttered. "But you will bring back Zak?"

"Of course."

I reached a hand over to brush his dark blue hair. It matched his eyes and reminded me of the one fuzzy memory I still had of what Zak looked like. I remembered Zak having blue hair, although much lighter and brighter than Zeno's.

I couldn't wait to get within speaking distance of him. As Zucarians, we had the ability to speak through the mind once we were close enough to sense each other. The distance varied upon both the speaker and the listener's skill. It wasn't much of a secret to other species because our eyes glowed when we used it. Still, it was effective in cases in which we were too far away to speak to each other aloud.

Zak batted my hand away with his own, squirming away from my touch. He stuck his tongue out at me and retreated to the door, glancing back as he paused beside it. The door had a motion detector, causing it to fold from the middle outward, which added more decoration to the walls around it. It left the doorway open and easy to step through.

I realized he was waiting for me to tell him what I was going to do now. "Want to visit our parents with me?"

"Yes," he answered firmly. His voice quavering a little, he added, "Are they getting better?"