By Dr. Adyasha Acharya

Have you ever been walking on a street with a feeling that you are being followed? That’s exactly how I feel right now because I know I am. 

I pretend to ignore the guys following me in their hover cars. I am a member of the Elite Guard of Valaros, capital of planet Orion in the Andromeda galaxy. And I certainly know my surroundings and even more certainly do not like being cornered by anyone.

I am about to explode on them when a hand grabs my wrist and drags me into a dark alley. “Vera, be quiet,” my fiancé, Eric, warns me. I was on my way to meet him anyways. Guess I succeeded.

I can only see his midnight blue eyes which match the sky overhead. Our sky is full of colours and lights and thousands of stars. It is enthralling and beautiful.

“Who are all these guys?” I whisper to him. Eric is the leader of the Elite Guard and I am his partner. We have been engaged for two months now. 

Eric’s raven hair falls on his forehead as he brushes a few strands of mine from my face. “I like the violet highlights in your usual blonde.”

I smile at him. “You love me.”

“Stating the obvious, love.” He releases me and frowns. “We have been summoned by Holloway.”

Things in Valaros have been a little weird ever since Garrett Holloway, an egoist royal, took over as the leader of our city. Everyone hates him. Except maybe those who don’t.

I raise a brow. “Why?”

“Apparently he is resigning.” I must be dreaming because there is no way this is real. I urge Eric to continue. “I don’t know anything more.”

“Let’s get going then.”

Eric and I own the fastest hover space vehicles in our city. They are luxurious and very rare. We got them as a gift from our neighbour planet for helping them win a war. 

It takes us ten minutes to reach Holloway’s mansion. I glare at his personal security head and say, “Do not send them next time.” 

He gives me a blank expression. He needs to get out more.

Holloway is on his lavish chair. He doesn’t look up when we approach him and instead taps the glass in front of him. A holographic image appears in the air. It is of Sir Levin, a famous royal of our planet. 

“Sir Levin has been found,” says Holloway.

What? Sir Levin was supposed to be the leader of Valaros but he had been missing for weeks. We had tried to find him but with no luck. 

I say, “Where is he?”

“He has been captured by The Bishops.” 

The Bishops are a gang of ruthless fighters who think they should rule. They fight dirty. 

Holloway plays the video message. Sir Levin says he has been captured by the gang.

“They must have let him send this message to us to lure us into a trap,” I say.

Eric crosses his arms and says, “You are resigning because Sir Levin is alive.”

“As much as I think I deserve this post,” says Holloway, “Sir Levin is the rightful leader of Valaros.” He doesn’t look like he’s speaking those words from his heart. 

“I know their base,” I say. Eric sighs. Despite his warnings, I had followed a Bishop once to their hideout a year ago. “We should go now.”

Eric nods, the warrior in him out to play, and says, “Get our vehicle ready, I’ll get the guns and blades.”

Eric and I work better together and with our Elite Guard. However, we don’t like Holloway’s personal security so we deny his offer of help. Sir Levin is our mentor. We will save him.

The Bishops have their hideout beyond the unused power grids. There is an electric fence which prevents anyone from crossing over to the other side.

Not a problem for this hardened space vehicle of ours. The fence breaks and we reach the other side.

After parking, we scout the area. “Did you notice, in the message, he was in a control room?” I ask.

“Has to be the one in the power grid,” Eric replies. “Let’s go.”

As we near the grid, we see several guards on the roof. 

“I’ll take them out,” says Eric. My fiancé is the best shooter we have. He never misses.

The day we met, he was actually going to shoot me. If it wasn’t for the spark he’d felt, I would have been dead — even though I wasn’t his target.

He takes out all four of them, then we sneak inside. I take my scanner out. “Okay, there are three on this floor. Five on the upper one and there is one person in the last room. Has to be Sir Levin.”

We walk inside and are blocked by the three Bishops. I take one out with my gun leaving us to blade the other two. Once that is done we head upstairs.

“Look, look,” a bald man greets us. Richer Bishop, the gang leader. “If you step forward, I’ll just press a button and blow up this whole place.”

“What do you want?” Eric demands. 

“We will only let Levin go if the Bishops get a place in the Elite Guard. You two can fulfil that.”

He has to be kidding. “Do you have a pen and paper?” I ask him. Eric clears his throat.

“That was easy,” Richer says. He orders one of his guys to get what I want, and the lackey returns with what I requested. 

“We’ll have to sign a written contract.” I take the pen and paper and jot down three words. “There you go.”

He takes it, and his eyes go wide open when he reads, “Not a chance.” 

I kick him in the chest and stab the pen into his arm. He grunts in pain. 

Eric shoots the other guys in seconds. “You made a mistake,” Richer groans and presses a small button.

A countdown starts. Sixty seconds to go. Dammit! “Move!” Eric drags me away. We quickly find Sir Levin and help him up. 

Thirty seconds. “We have to jump,” I instruct. 

Eric and I grab Sir Levin and the three of us jump out of the window just as the whole place explodes. 

“You children okay?” Sir Levin asks us.

“Yes, sir. Are you?”

“Yes. But I think I have had enough of this place.”

Eric grins at me. “Let’s head home.”

“Gladly.”

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