Falling Stars

Calli wished her mom was there. Kristina Sinclair had always been the wisest, most patient person Calli had ever known, and she would likely know exactly what to say to make Calli feel better. Instead, Calli just felt alone. The palace was weirdly empty with everyone piled into the Great Hall for the wedding, so she had free reign to wander.

Somehow she found herself out in the gardens, which thankfully offered no view of the Great Hall and were currently empty. She wandered listlessly among the flowers, looking as dreary as she felt in her dove grey dress. It was the most somber colored dress she'd been able to find in her closet, and she felt it matched her current mood. She came across a covered gazebo, vines crawling up its sides. She sat down heavily on the marble bench and listened to the trickling sound of the nearby fountains, burying her face in her hands.

She felt guilty for abandoning Julian on his wedding day, but she still couldn't bring herself to stand up and go into the Great Hall. She didn't have the stomach to fake a smile, and she didn't need to see the smug look on Cecily's face when she stalked out of the room as Julian's wife. All Calli wanted right then was to flee to the farthest reaches of the galaxy and fight Tesheni until her body gave out.

Footsteps approaching roused her from her thoughts, and she lifted her head wearily. She froze stiff when she saw Julian standing at the top of the steps. She rose slowly to her feet.

"What are you doing out here?" she asked, her voice coming out like a croak. She realized she hadn't spoken at all since she told him she wasn't coming to the wedding.

"Why didn't you come?" Julian asked, his voice low. He looked angry and wounded and confused all at once.

"You shouldn't be out here, Julian. The reception party will be starting soon."

"I don't care."

Calli tried to move past him but he caught her shoulders and kept her rooted in place inside the gazebo.

"Why. Didn't. You. Come?" he repeated. Calli shook his shoulders off.

"I told you, I couldn't."

"Dammit, Calli, that's not an answer!"

"What do you want from me?" she snapped back.

"I want you to tell me why the hell you've been acting so weird lately! The council decides to marry me to a total stranger and when she shows up, you disappear."

"It seemed to me you were just fine being alone with her," Calli retorted.

"I told you, what you saw that night wasn't what it looked like."

Calli snorted and Julian scowled.

"Why can't you just tell me what you've been so upset about?" he demanded. Calli shook her head, pushing past him again.

"You said you'd be there for me when I needed you," Julian said, and the words stopped Calli in her tracks. She whirled to face him, feeling tears threatening to well in her eyes.

"You don't need me anymore," she fired at him.

"Like hell! This was the most nerve-wracking day of my life, and my own best friend decided not to show up."

"I couldn't watch you marry her!" The words burst out of Calli's mouth before she could stop them. "It was horrible seeing you together all the time. I hated it, and I couldn't stand to watch you up there with her, looking at her like she's some kind of goddess."

"I don't understand." Julian's tone had softened somewhat, a baffled little frown appearing on his face. Calli let out a sad laugh that sounded dangerously close to a sob.

"I know you don't," she said miserably. "You're an idiot, but I'm actually the stupidest person in the galaxy. Because I know you'd never look at me like that, and I never should have let myself have feelings for you."

"You...what feelings?"

Tears were starting to leak from the corners of her eyes but Calli laughed for real this time, shaking her head.

"You're the second stupidest person in the galaxy," she said. She figured she had dug this hole pretty deep already, and she wasn't thinking very clearly anymore. All she knew was that her heart hurt, and all it wanted was Julian. So she caught the front of his shirt and tugged him down, pressing her lips against his. She pulled back quickly though, knowing this moment couldn't last.

"I couldn't come to the wedding because I'm in love with you." Her voice was soft and thick with emotion. She stepped quickly back from him, wrapping her arms around herself. Julian looked positively stunned and Calli was already regretting being honest with him. At least this would make it easier when she left; he was probably mortified with her very presence.

Calli was already backing up to the steps, preparing to flee before she could hear the inevitable response, that she was just his friend, there was nothing between them. But the answer never came; instead Calli heard the unmistakable hum of a laser machine gun whirring to life in the distance.

"Julian," she said, and then they heard the sound of screams coming from the Great Hall. The castle was under attack. Calli's instincts immediately took over, and she was already grabbing his arm and yanking him from the gazebo.

"Hurry," she said urgently. "They probably think you're in the palace with everyone else. We need to get you to the royal evacuation transport, now."

"Royal evacuation transport," Julian repeated, seeming to have trouble taking in what was happening. A small aircraft careened into the side of the palace, taking out part of a tower. Tesheni insurgents dropped from the wreckage as the destroyed speeder fell to the ground amid falling debris. The armor and weapons they were sporting were definitely not Tesheni-made. They were brutal fighters, but their own technology was pretty archaic.

Calli pulled Julian along at a breakneck pace, her heart threatening to pound out of her chest. She spotted Roark and Lorian hurrying toward them as she punched in the code to open the secret hangar where the evacuation pod was kept.

"You're alive," Calli said. "Thank God."

"A lot of people had started to leave the Great Hall to find Julian," Lorian said, looking shaken. He was clutching a little girl and a beautiful woman like he never intended to let them go. "But I'm sure plenty of them..."

"Don't think about it," Calli ordered, forgetting that she wasn't talking to her soldiers right now. This was still a battlefield, and battlefields Calli understood. She shoved Julian into the shuttle, not even bothering to try and hide her strength.

"All of you, in," she barked and Roark fairly lifted the Lorian family in one arm and put them inside. Everyone started strapping themselves in while Calli scrambled to the front, setting it to autopilot so it could steer free of the chaos.

"Once you've cleared the atmosphere, one of you needs to take over manual controls," Calli said.

"What do you mean, one of us?" Julian seemed to have snapped out of his daze slightly, struggling to stand. Roark pushed him back into his seat and kept trying to secure Julian's harness. Calli was already heading back to the exit door.

"Roark, do me a favor," she said. The giant looked at her skeptically, still holding Julian in his seat.

"Take care of him, okay?"

Roark's features softened probably as much as they could.

"Hey, wait! What are you doing? Calli!" Julian again tried frantically to get free of his harness as Calli leaped out the door just before it shut. She hit the ground running, feeling a gust of air as the shuttle started to take off behind her. A palace guard was lying unconscious in the grass, knocked out by a chunk of rubble. Calli checked to make sure he still had a pulse before swiping his gun and charging into the fray.

She had taken down five Tesheni before any of them started realizing she wasn't another fleeing, panicked noble. Then they started coming for her. Calli welcomed the fight; it had been a long time since she'd been able to punch something and all her pent up anger and heartache was unleashed.

The Tesheni seemed to be trying to demolish the palace brick by brick, no doubt searching for the king. The palace servants and guests were making mad dashes for the transports and the city beyond the palace. It was complete and utter chaos. She spotted several of the largest Tesheni break through a blockade of guards like they were nothing more than toys, barreling up the steps toward the western wing.

Even if Julian was safely away from the palace, she still couldn't let them in there. There would be servants and advisors likely hiding, those who hadn't been trampled by the crowd. And there was too much important information hidden in these walls that the Tesheni could not get their hands on. Calli charged after them, and one spotted her, raising his laser blaster to his shoulder and aiming at her.

Calli moved impossibly fast, dropping and skidding beneath the deadly beam and shooting through the Tesheni's face plate before he could blink. She pilfered his blaster and ran up the stairs after the others, taking the stairs four at a time. Every time she came across another Tesheni, she reacted almost without even thinking. She barely noticed when one came at her from the side and knocked her hard against the wall. She just launched herself off the wall and flew at him with a shriek, smashing his face guard with her hand and sending jagged bits into his eye.

The Tesheni roared with pain, flailing back from her. He still tried to shoot her, but his aim was wildly off. Calli was on him quick as a cat, wrenching his helmet off entirely and snapping his neck with a violent twist. They both toppled to the ground and she scrambled free, taking his two handheld laser pistols. She kept losing and finding more guns. She went tearing up another set of winding stairs, the wind knocked out of her as a giant Tesheni caught her arm and threw her clear across the room. Calli hit the wall and slid down to the floor, on her feet again in seconds.

Tesheni were vaguely humanoid in appearance, though they were typically much taller than the average human, usually standing around seven feet tall. This one had to be at least nine. They had tough grey skin that slightly resembled scales, and dark reptilian eyes that rarely blinked. And they were strong. She had seen them toss around full grown men like they weighed no more than a bag of feathers.

The Tesheni facing her now advanced slowly, his heavy boots making the floor shake. Instead of a gun, he held a huge war hammer. These and giant spiked maces were traditional Tesheni weapons, when they weren't just cracking skulls with their fists. He took a swing at her and Calli dodged, leaping high into the air and kicking him in the face.

He actually laughed, an unpleasant rasping sound. "You're an interesting specimen," he said. He scrutinized her with his unnerving eyes. "I feel like I've seen you before."

"I'll be the last thing you see," Calli retorted and he laughed again. He swung the mace again, and again, and again. She had to leap and flit around the room like a she was on springs just to avoid having her head crushed. Then he caught her off guard by swinging at the chandelier above them and she had to duck her head and twist away to avoid the glass and crystal shards. The Tesheni seized her by the wrist and swung her up against the wall. Pain shrieked through her shoulder.

The Tesheni held her in place, her feet dangling. "I do know you, little cockroach," he said. "I saw you the day we took Evox."

Calli froze and she was pretty sure he was smiling behind his face guard.

"The little silver one who escaped," he mused. "Fate had deigned to bring us together again today, it would seem. You were the only one who survived that day, and now I can rectify that."

"If I escaped you inbred sons of whores when I was a child, I can sure as hell do it now," Calli spat. She had gone limp when he mentioned Evox, and now she gathered her strength and kicked him hard in the gut. It sent him stumbling back, since he clearly hadn't anticipated how strong she'd be. Calli hit the floor and tried to lunge for her fallen gun. The Tesheni hammer slammed into her side and she screamed as she was knocked to the ground. She tried to ignore the throbbing in her side. Definitely a cracked rib or two, but she'd heal quick enough.

The Tesheni loomed over her, preparing to swing the hammer down again when something hit him in the head and clinked off his helmet. He whirled to see who had hit him and started laughing.

"Going to defeat me, little Kingling?" he scoffed and Calli paused in her mad scrabble for her gun. She peered around the Tesheni's tree trunk legs and spotted a wide-eyed Julian in the doorway. If she survived this, she would kill him herself, the idiot.

"Don't be so sure of yourself," Julian said, his voice sounding impressively calm, given the situation. Calli was still crawling for her gun while the Tesheni was distracted.

"The cavalry showed up pretty quick," Julian went on. "Your buddies outside aren't doing so hot."

The Tesheni growled and stomped to the window. What he saw clearly didn't please him and Calli's heart leapt. She had contacted General Li about her concerns for the wedding, and clearly Li had agreed. She must have sent some cloaked shuttles to stand by in case something happened. The Tesheni roared, banging his fists so hard on the window that the glass shattered.

"It doesn't matter," he snarled, pulling something out of his pocket. "I can still end your royal line."

Calli realized he was arming a tiny but destructive bomb. Without thinking, she pounced on his back, slamming the butt of her gun into his face to shatter the face guard. He fought to get her off and Calli heard Julian shout her name but all she was focused on was the bomb. He almost bucked her off but Calli held on for dear life, snatching the armed and ticking bomb out of his hand. She had less than fifteen seconds.

"What are you going to do now, little silver cockroach?" the Tesheni asked mockingly as she dropped from his back.

"I'm going to send you straight to hell." Calli slammed into him, stuffing the bomb through his broken face guard and nearly choking him with it as she shoved it into his laughing mouth. Then she shoved him back toward the broken window, kicking his legs out from under him.

All of this had happened in the space of a breath, but she felt like time had slowed down as she felt his hand grip her wrist on his way down, and then she was falling. The Tesheni was gagging and trying to cough up the bomb now lodged in his throat. His grip on her arm was lost as he clawed at his throat, and Calli reached out desperately to grab onto the rails of a balcony. She barely managed to grab it, her ribs and bruised shoulder screaming in protest.

Below her, the Tesheni exploded in a gory mess before he even hit the ground. Calli dangled from the balcony, her hands starting to slip. She grit her teeth.

"No, Sinclair. Not today. You will not die like this. Come on, soldier." She swung, trying to hook her legs over the rail. A pair of hands gripped hers suddenly and helped pull her over. Calli toppled onto the balcony with a gasp and found herself looking into Julian's ashen, blood-stained face.