atop it.
He pressed the button on the side of the disc. The blue light brightened as the device scanned him, confirming his identity. A moment later, a holographic projection materialized over the disc—Ultricar Khelvar Bathiras, Zevris’s commanding officer, depicted in three dimensions from the chest up.
Zevris rested his elbows on his thighs and leaned forward. “Ultricar.”
“Althicar,” the ultricar replied. His normally stoic expression hardened around his mouth and brows, but something in his eyes softened. He continued in the Faloran tongue. “Tell me you have good news, Zevris.”
It had been over a month since Zevris’s last communication with his commander—over a month since he’d last heard his native language spoken aloud—but he could derive no comfort from it now. He frowned. “Little has changed, Khelvar. My continued efforts have yielded no results.”
Though those Faloran words came as easily for Zevris as ever, they felt oddly alien on his tongue. That sense, though small, was jarring.
“Everything depends on this, Zevris. It is no secret. Our people are fast running out of options.”
“I understand. It is why I accepted this assignment.”
Khelvar lifted a hand, scratching at his cheek with his claws. It was a nervous tick the ultricar only displayed when circumstances were dire.
Zevris’s heart quickened, and his brow furrowed. He suddenly felt as though a molten hot spike had been plunged into his chest. “Has something happened?”
“No,” Khelvar replied with a dismissive flick of his fingers. “No new disasters. Just the old, slowly creeping doom.”
For a few seconds, Zevris studied the ultricar’s face. Khelvar had been an althicar operating in the field, already several years into his service, when Zevris’s service had begun, and Zevris’s first operation had been as a member of Khelvar’s team. They’d known each other for a long while, but only now was Zevris beginning to notice—and understand—the subtle changes to Khelvar’s face. Those changes went beyond normal aging.
The ultricar was tired. Perhaps not for the same reasons as Zevris, but his weariness looked just as thorough, just as heavy. It was the sort of weariness that had nothing to do with the physical; it was embedded deep in what humans called the soul.
“What is wrong, Khelvar?”
“Orders have been passed down. I am to extract you and embed a new althicar in your place.”
Zevris’s heart stilled. The tightness in his chest strengthened, coiling around his insides like one of Earth’s constricting serpents. Of all the things he might have expected to hear, of all the bad news he might have imagined, he could never have anticipated this.
“This is not meant to stain you with dishonor, Zevris,” Khelvar continued. “You are the best althicar with whom I have ever served. But your release from service was meant to go into effect after this final mission, and with no progress to show… Command has decided we will not keep you there indefinitely. You’ve done your part a dozen times over. You’ve more than earned your trip home.”
A few days ago, Zevris might have been concerned with the potential dishonor. Failure was no source of shame for an althicar—so long as it was failure suffered while fighting with one’s all. Althicars’ duties placed them in immense danger, forced them to face staggering odds, all the time. But so much of the respect and fear the Exthurizen had built over the last two generations had been due to the tenacity displayed by its field operatives.
An althicar saw his mission to the end no matter what. Leaving an operation incomplete…that was not the way althicars conducted themselves.
But Zevris couldn’t have cared less about all that now. His thoughts, his shock and concern, were turned toward Tabitha. Would he be separated from her before ever truly having a chance to win her? Would he be left with nothing more than a few memories of her?
“We have other althicars on Earth, do we not?” Zevris asked numbly.
Khelvar huffed and briefly bared his fangs. “You know I am not authorized to share that information.”
Because of Earth’s status as a developing world, races like the falorans were bound by intergalactic agreements to refrain from making contact with the planet’s native species. Zevris was not supposed to be here. None of the alien beings hiding on Earth—many of whom were suspected to be fugitives and criminals—were meant to be here. To keep this operation secure, the individual althicars sent had not been informed of the whereabouts or identities of their comrades. The lack of knowledge would make it impossible for any althicar to betray the other operatives.
It