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Chapter 2. The Intercept
Aelion’s voice.
We were on patrol along the border between Federation space and Draco territory, two escort ships holding formation behind us, when Arian broke the silence.
“Sensor contact. Draco signatures, decloaking on our side of the border.”
No alarm in his voice. Only focus.
“Confirmed?”
“Confirmed. Draco signatures, not ours.”
I was already rising from the chair.
If Arian was reporting this himself, there was little room left for doubt.
Arian was my ship. My starship, flagship of the Pleiadian fleet.
Not just a warship, and not just an artificial intelligence. He was a living being, as much as a fourth-dimensional ship could be alive. He thought, argued, drew his own conclusions, and often allowed himself opinions I hadn’t asked for.
“Report.”
The tactical map was already unfolding in front of me.
“Three Draco ships. Vega system. Low orbit over Velara.” The planet’s name meant nothing to me.
“World’s status?”
“Agrarian civilization. Early-stage industrialization. No orbital defense. No means of detection either.” He paused, briefly. I knew that pause too well. “The pattern matches the last four incursions exactly. They’re not here for resources.”
I already knew what came next.
“For people?”
“Yes.”
The Draco incursions over the last few weeks had all followed the same pattern. Draco ships appeared along the old Vega corridor, struck undefended worlds inside Federation territory, took what they came for, and vanished before our forces could close the distance. They never touched local ships, never took equipment, never showed interest in minerals. What they wanted was women, carriers of an ancient bloodline. They knew exactly what they were looking for, scanning crowds and gatherings for the energy signatures that interested them, and moved in the moment they found a match.
I’d read dozens of reports like this one. Today I was about to see it firsthand.
“Time to intercept?”
“Eleven minutes, if we commit to hyperspace now.”
“Forward.”
“Already engaged.”
Space shuddered around the ship. The stars stretched into lines of light and vanished. Only the route, the speed, and the countdown remained on the tactical display.
Eleven minutes. Too long. Somewhere ahead, under Velara’s sky, people were still living an ordinary life, not yet knowing the war had already reached their world.
“Report,” I said, a little past the halfway point.
“Transport beam activity confirmed,” Arian said. “Upper terrace. Market square. High population density.” A brief pause. “They’re operating in the open.”
“Not hiding?”
“No.”
That was new. Until now the Draco had been careful about witnesses. Something had changed.
“Why the shift?”
“Velara has no means of communication that could reach anyone capable of intervening.”
He was right. To the people below, this looked like an unexplainable disaster. Even if someone survived to describe it, no one beyond the planet would ever hear.
Less than a minute to exit.
Three ship markers hung on the display. Two of them had begun to drift. The third held still.
“Target status.”
“Alpha and Beta are preparing to jump. Escort ships moving to intercept, but they won’t close the gap in time.”
“Gamma?”
“Still holding position. Likely still loading.”
That settled it.
“Gamma’s the target.”
“Confirmed.”
Space regained its depth around us. We dropped out of hyperspace.
Three Draco ships still hung over the planet. Alpha and Beta were already sliding into transit, exactly as Arian had warned during the jump. Gamma held its position, still loading, still ours to take.
“Alpha and Beta beginning transit,” Arian said, level as ever. “Escort ships didn’t close the distance in time. Intercept not possible.”
I didn’t answer. The calculation was already done. Chase them now and we’d lose the third as well, and losing the third meant losing everyone still aboard it.
“Gamma, then.”
“Yes.”
“Main gun.”
“Charged.”
“Configuration?”
“Recommend a wide-band pulse into the power core.”
I’d already reached the same conclusion. A hit like that wouldn’t breach the hull. It would simply flood every system on board past what it could carry. Weapons. Shields. Navigation. Communications. All of it, at once, while the people inside stayed alive.
“Fire.”
Arian’s main gun flared, a short white arc. The beam struck Gamma across the stern. For a moment the ship seemed to hang frozen. Then its running lights died, one after another. The shields dropped. The weapons went dark. On the tactical display, nearly every system on board turned gray.
“Impact confirmed,” Arian said. “Reactor held the load. Life support functioning. Crew alive.”
Exactly what I’d been aiming for.
The escort ships fired as the portals closed, a parting shot that did no real damage but sent its own message: this border didn’t cross without a price. The other two ships had already slipped into transit, their portals sealing shut behind them. Those were gone now. But the third one wasn’t.
“Match velocity with Gamma.”
“Executing.”
“Prepare to dock.”
“Strike team’s ready.”
I gave a short nod. Time to finish what we’d come here to do.
The strike team had gathered at the airlock before docking finished. Five of us. On operations like this, we didn’t use names. Only numbers. Safer that way. I was One.
“Airlock sealed,” Arian reported. “No movement detected aboard.”
“Open it.”
The door slid apart without a sound. Emergency red lighting lit the corridor beyond. Arian’s strike had done exactly what we’d calculated, the ship’s power grid was still holding, but most of its systems remained dead. That bought us a few minutes’ advantage. Sooner or later, their crew would come to and start bringing the systems back online.
The Draco ship met us with a smell every one of their vessels carried, bitter, metallic, the kind that settled deep in the throat and stayed there long after the operation ended. I knew that smell too well.
We moved in.
“Biosignatures,” Three said quietly, checking the scanner. “Six Draco. All in the forward and engine sections.” He frowned. “And one human.”
I looked at the display. A single marker, set apart from the rest.
“Confirm that.”
“Confirmed.” He checked it again. “Isolated compartment. Not the main cargo bay.”
I’d braced for dozens of captives.
“Recent capture?”
“Field signature reads minutes old. Paralysis beam. Consciousness fully suppressed.”
Which meant we had almost no time at all.
“Move.”
While their crew was still recovering, the advantage was ours.
We met the first Draco at the next turn, still trying to stand. A blast from Three’s energy blaster dropped him back against the bulkhead. The second reached for his own blaster and didn’t make it. The other four went down one after another under short bursts from blasters. Within moments the sensors read no more movement in the corridors.
“Sector clear,” Two reported.
“Continue.”
The compartment sat at the end of a short side corridor. A small transport cell. A narrow berth with restraints. Nothing else.
She lay motionless. Fair hair spread across the pillow. Plain travel clothes. The restraints held her wrists.
I stopped, just for a moment, then closed the distance.
“Field readings,” I said.
Six was already bent over her, running the scanner along her body.
“Direct hit from a paralysis beam. No external damage. Consciousness fully suppressed, she won’t come out of it on her own for hours.” She glanced at the readout. “Field’s unstable. The sooner she’s in a healing capsule, the easier the recovery.”
“Understood.”
I leaned down and freed her wrists from the restraints. The moment my hands touched her, something inside me shifted, faint, unexplained. Not pain. Something closer to a current than a feeling, there and gone so fast I couldn’t be certain it had happened at all.
“One?”
Six’s voice pulled me back.
“She’s ready.”
I lifted her carefully. She swayed slightly against me, and I found myself pulling her closer than the moment required, as if it mattered that she not feel even that small motion, though I knew she couldn’t feel anything at all right now.
“One?” Six said again, quieter. “Field’s still unstable. Recommend getting her into the capsule as soon as possible.”
“We’re moving.”
We left the compartment as fast as we’d entered it. Six Draco were still unconscious. No reason to linger.
Arian’s medical bay was ready before we’d fully returned aboard. Leia met us at the entrance.
“Here.”
I set the girl down on the diagnostic platform and stepped back, letting the medics work. Leia ran the scan fast, then paused. Her eyes stayed on the display a moment too long. She checked it again.
“Something wrong?” I asked.
“No.” She didn’t look up right away. “Just… unusual.”
For a few seconds the only sound in the bay was the quiet hum of instruments. Then she finally met my eyes.
“Lyrian bloodline.”
She said it evenly, but I’d known her long enough to hear it. That tone only came out when the results genuinely surprised her.
“How old?”
“Very.” She checked the display again. “Ninety-eight percent match.”
I looked at the girl on the platform. It was starting to make sense now, why the Draco had taken this kind of risk.
“The paralysis beam left no lasting damage,” Leia went on, “but her body’s still running on third-dimensional parameters.” She touched the capsule controls. “Without adaptation, waking up is going to be hard on her.”
“Begin.”
The transparent lid closed slowly. A soft silver light rose inside the capsule.
I didn’t leave. I stood there until the readings began to even out.
“Aelion.” Arian’s voice reached me alone, over the private channel. “I ran a match on her field signature against the scans from the two ships that got away.”
“Go on.”
“There’s a close match aboard one of them. Same signature pattern, close enough to be family. Her mother, most likely, among those taken.”
I stood there, looking at the capsule, and said nothing for a moment.
“We’ll find her.”
“Acknowledged,” Arian said. No comment this time.
I stayed a while longer. The light inside the capsule moved slow and even. In a few hours she’d open her eyes into a world that, this morning, she couldn’t have imagined existed.
I didn’t know what I’d say to her, when that happened.
But I knew one thing for certain. I’d be there.
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With Love, Lianna Wale.
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