Thrax

Chapter 8

He awoke in a place he did not recognize.

Actually, he knew what the place was.  What he did not know was where it was.

It was a plain, spare space.  He was on a cushioned surface on a circular fixture that he took to be a bed of sorts.  There was a water basin and a chair-like structure that he took to be a kind of latrine.  The place had three walls.  Directly in front of him, the wall opened out into another chamber, as unadorned as the one in which he found himself.

Sitting up on the bed, Thrax felt for his weapon and found it missing.  Of course, his captors had taken it.  No one would throw him into a cell and let him keep his powerblade.  Without question, he was in a cell.  Though it looked as if he could step freely from the space where he now was into the adjoining chamber, if he tried to step through the space where the wall was missing, he would certainly encounter a barrier of some sort, a force field that would block him or hurl him back. 

Thrax quickly pulled together the few facts he had available.  He had been in the forest outside of Silverwing with the other Knights and Corps members and their human aspirants from the Chateau, including Agena.  He felt his skin turn cold and pale at the question of where Agena was.  Where had his captors taken her?  Where had they taken Meline and the others, yes—but what had they done with Agena?

As a prisoner, it was Thrax’s duty to do everything in his power to try to escape.  For that, he would have to face his captors personally, a prospect that he relished at this point.  There was only one thing he wanted more than to look into the faces of whatever creatures had attacked his world and brought so much pain and death and destruction to his home.  That one thing was to know that Agena was unharmed.

If they had hurt her, whatever kind of creatures they were, they would know the full wrath and fury of a dragon of Lacerta.  And though he was a Knight and had a code of honor and a creed of duty, in his heart, he was a man and would take pleasure in punishing any creature that had done any harm to Agena Morrow.

As if on cue, a portal in the adjoining space slid open and three figures, one of them female, stepped into view.  The gray-skinned humanoids, one walking a few paces ahead of the others, approached the space where Thrax guessed the force field was.  The one in front wore a military-looking chest sash the color of dried blood—an appropriate enough hue, Thrax thought, for someone who had spilled the blood of his people.  He looked forward to returning the favor.

The being wearing the sash said in a croaking voice, “It is good we find you recovered.  There are things we must discuss.”

Thrax rose from the bed and stepped forward to address his foe.  “What is this place?” he asked.  “Where am I, and who are you?”

“My ship is the mastercraft Rog’Kalach of the planet Scodax.  I am Captain Amlax.”  He indicated the ones behind him: “This is Venar, my second-in-command, and Vendass, my third.  And we have taken from the sense of hierarchy that you are the leader of the group of beings we acquired from the planet we are orbiting.  Are we correct?”

Thrax was slightly puzzled at this: “Hierarchy?”

“Your garment,” said Venar.  “Yours is the only garment in three colors of those we acquired with the sonic inducer weapon, suggesting that you are the leader.  Is our judgement correct?”

That explained a couple of things.  The thing that had hit him, Agena, and Meline outside the cave after the alien ships had destroyed the aerovans was a “sonic inducer,” a way of subduing opponents with minimal injury.  And this – Captain Amlax had guessed Thrax’s importance from his armor colors.  “Yes,” said Thrax.  “I was in command.  I am Sir Thrax Helmer of the Knights of the planet Lacerta, and I demand to know where you have taken the others of my group.  Where are they, and have they been harmed?”

“They are in separate detention and are no more injured than when we found them,” answered Amlax.  “We had no wish to do them harm—or you.”

Thrax wanted nothing more at this moment than to morph to dragon, leap through whatever force field stood where the wall ought to be, and flay this Amlax creature to bloody gray shreds.  From the look of him, it would take little effort to do so.  His skin looked like old leather that had never been oiled. 

But any attempted assault on this creature, Thrax knew, would be wasted effort just now.  He would have to bide his time and seek his opportunity.  Knowing that, however, did not keep the edge of rising anger from his voice.  “‘No wish to do us harm’?  How do you claim to have no wish to do us harm after everything else you’ve done?  Attacking our cities, injuring and killing our people!  Those are acts of war!”

“The actions we have taken were necessary steps in establishing order,” said Amlax.

Thrax nearly roared.  “Order?”

“Yes—our order.  We have annexed your planet and cannot brook opposition.  So long as no opposition is presented, everything will remain in order.  We wish no further harm.  Far from it, in fact.  We want only the things we have found to be of value about this planet.  You possess certain resources that we require.  There is an abundance of a mineral necessary for space travel.  There is another mineral we believe may be of medicinal or therapeutic value.  And…there is your population – in particular, those of your population such as you.”

Now, Thrax was wary.  “What do you want with our ‘population’—our people?”

“What we ask of those like you,” said Amlax, “is that you join us.”

“Join you?” Thrax balked.

Venar, the alien female, replied, “I shall explain.  The Scodax are a mighty and powerful race, as you have found.  But we are not a united race.  Long ago, our society, our civilization, divided into many tribes and factions that failed to coexist.  We spread ourselves thin across the galaxy, sometimes remaining aboard our ships in orbit of stars or uninhabitable planets, sometimes finding a planet to colonize or occupy.  But every faction has remained alone, isolated and divided from all the others.