BIRTHRIGHT Book One: The First Key

Chapter 15

Alex is laying in the cylindrical operating room, the red light pulsing overhead every second. It hums as it flicks on. It goes silent as it flicks off. At least he can keep a more accurate gage of time now. The light has flashed on and off nearly three thousand times since the Professor left.

'So he's been gone nearly an hour.' he casually calculates.

Staring at a large tear in his bicep, Alex is expending a massive effort to will the his flash to close. Hesitant, dim sparks flash as it slowly begins to stitch itself back together. Sweat is beading up on his forehead. And he's thirsty. So thirsty. He knows his energy levels are critically low. His vaulted Akarios technology can't heal him if it's just floating dormant in his body. If those bloodthirsty humans come in for another go round with their knives and saws, they're not going to be nearly as impressed with what they see.

And as long as these Zek'Hasa inhibitors are on his hands and feet, his only weapon is his mind.

The flashes of light in his open wound fizzle out. Alex slams his head back into the table, exhausted. The gash tears back open and begins to bleed.

It's rare that he envies the warrior class anything, but they do receive the lion's share of zero-energy training. Sure, his diplomatic training is more physically rigorous than they endure in the spiritual order, but still, he finally understands the value of those experiences that his Akarios life-mate, Nara, used to boast about in her warrior training.

'If you only knew how liberating it is to fight without technology on your side' she used to tell him, 'it's like being in free-fall.'

He never thought that was a very tempting description, as they laid beneath the fillion trees, watching the sun go down over the quartz mountains.

'Like falling in love?' he'd asked her sardonically.

'Better.' she teased back.

Leo had never approved of his Khal, his lifemate, being from the warrior caste. Priests always mated within their caste. They said it was to keep bloodlines 'pious'. But Alex, like most diplomats, had always thought outside the box. After all, his best friend had been a priest, why not have a fighter for a wife?

But Alex knew why not.

Because it was only a matter of time until her ideology conflicted with his. And when the Diplomats had sided with the Warriors on the Zek'Hasa vote, it was Leo's father who had needed to vote against his conscience. Poor Janus. He was always able to see both sides of an issue with such clarity before.

When Alex naturally sided with his order, and with the Warriors, Leo seemed to think Alex was somehow choosing Nara over their lifelong friendship. It had never been the same between them.

And then the accident happened.

At least 'accident' was still the official label for it. While a unanimous vote from the tribunal was needed to terminate the Zek'Hasa home world, it was Warriors whose job it was to swing the executioner's blade.

The Priests cal that blade 'the Darkener'. The Diplomats prefer to refer to it as 'the World Shaker'. Ever the most pragmatic lot, the Warriors have always called it by its official name: 'the Ragnarok Device'.

It was Nara's first post: piloting the Akarios ship that would deliver the Ragnarok to the Zek'Hasa. Alex had managed to pull a few strings to have Nara considered for the post. After all, his mother was the Archon. But once her name was in the running, Nara had earned this honour, beating out dozens of other qualified pilots. Alex was so proud of her. He still remembered being on the orbital docks with Nara's baby sister, sending her off to such important first assignment.