Triton Chapter 3 Spying

         Crisp clean air filled Vio's lungs and the stars sparkled with joy. At least that's how she liked to interpret their elemental strength. Her light dress floated and waved in a cool breeze.

         Multicolored single story apartments lined the street, and directly behind them a whitewashed wall, with anti-space weaponry along the top, towered into the sky. Anozia was a sleepy city and Vio figured no one manned the heavy blasters.

        Around the corner she strolled with nonchalant care, and stepped up to the Palace guard shack. Vio smirked; there was no gate, just a gaping archway that had not been shut in—thousands of years. The guard grinned and waved her through.

          She headed into to courtyard of the Palace that was tiled in white granite, without an incident. Why would there be an incident? Vio walked into the Palace anytime she wanted. Did she ever stop at the gate? Her heart began to pound. What if the guards knew that she was about to steal her equipment back from her father? Wait. What she was doing wasn't wrong.

        Grass lawn spread to left and right with fruit trees growing in varies locations. The large five story structure, built with white marble that had maroon and black splotches in random areas, loomed ahead.

         Vio climbed up the granite steps that wrapped around in front of the door. The inside of the Palace foyer was dark, but she knew the place like the back of her hand. To her left was a wide set of steps that led to the second floor balcony. A shadow from the railing lay across floor.

         She moved past a pillar and near the back wall. First stop would be her mother's suite in the east wing. The maroon and black marble at her feet tapped with each step. How was she ever going to sneak around on that?

         Vio turned right and headed down the long hallway toward her mother's room. The hall was dark, but Vio placed her hand against the smooth white granite, and allowed her fingertips to slide with each step forward. A light shone through the door at the end.  Her old room appeared to her right and Ladonno's doorway stood directly across to the left.

         She hastened her pace and opened her mother’s door. Vio squint her eyes until they became accustom to the light.

         “Vio” Her mother's voice rang out with glee.

         “Hey mom”

         Tolia emerged from behind a large indoor shrub. “What brings you here tonight? Don't you have to be at work in just a few hours?”

         How could her mother could be so involved with the Coven, her plants, and still know when Vio was supposed to be at work? “I already slept. Mom, Ladonno contacted me today.”

         Tolia's hazel eyes lit up and her perfect peach skin seemed to glow. Even her short, straight light brown hair acted as if an electric shock flowed into it.

         “That's wonderful! What did he say?”

         Tolia grabbed Vio's arm, and pulled her between several plants. She tugged her around the holographic media center in the middle of her front room, and nearly shoved Vio into white couch on the other side.

         Vio tried to gain control over herself between laughter and shock. “He just said that everything was okay and I asked him about why the Army was being pulled back to Triton.”

         Tolia frowned. “You shouldn't bother your brother with what's going on here at home. He has his work cut out for him out there. I just learned that some new enemy has crossed the dark expanse of space and attacked the Eighth Galaxy.”

         Vio jolted her head back. “He didn't say anything to me about that!”

         “Maybe he didn't want to worry you, like you shouldn't be worrying him!”

         “But Mom...”

         “Don't 'but mom' me. You would have a better relationship with your brother if you just stuck to pleasantries instead of shoving a bunch of garbage onto him.”

         Vio lowered her head. “I'm sorry mom”

         “You should apologize to Ladonno”

         “I will. But anyways, I just wanted to let you know that he contacted me today, and that he's alright.” Vio stood and then reached down to hug her Mother. “I better go; like you said, I have to be at work soon.”

         Tolia smiled. “Okay”

         Vio turned and walked out of her mother's suite. The dark hallway greeted her with silence. She flipped her left wrist and tapped her H.I.C. bracelet. The interface lit up the corridor in a light blue hue. She selected an all black outfit with soft soled shoes. In no time she was dressed to sneak around.

         What was she doing? She had free roaming ability throughout the Palace, except for her father's secret rooms. Those were the rooms that she needed to get into.

         She crept forward until she returned to the foyer. Vio turned and glanced right and left. With no one to stop her, Vio darted for the steps on the other side of the foyer. Two guards patrolled out in front of the Palace and did not even turn to look inside. She felt like an idiot. Did she think that just because she worked with the Aldan that she could act like them?

         Up the steps she tiptoed until she reached the balcony overlooking the foyer. Daddy's offices were down the west hallway of the second floor. The war room was up another floor. The fourth and fifth floors were bedrooms for the Palace guards, unless he changed that.

         Vio tiptoed down the west wing and past several doorways until she found the one she was looking for. She opened her H.I.C. and accessed a program that she personally designed to hack into anything, Triton built. The system worked its magic and the door clicked and then slid open. Vio rushed into the pitch black room.

         A quick tap on the H.I.C. and the interface illuminated a desk, chair, windows covered in drapes, and the walls in a bluish glow. His closet was behind her. Scattered across the top of the desk a stack of modules laid. Immediately she rummaged through them but her research was not there.

         Instead, one of the modules activated and a holograph popped up. A space ship turned in a circle with the exact design Vio had previously created. An exoskeleton with two sideways ovals for the front and rear, a top and bottom bracket connected them with weapons ports at the side. On the top center bracket was a dome, and the bridge for this revolutionary model. Vio marveled. The Aldan took over her research and hired her to perfect the Prolon propulsion system to work in the current warship designs. Her father apparently stole her research and from the looks of it actually started to build one. This was disturbing. She placed her hands on her sides and took a deep breath. Where could he have put the module that she was looking for?

         Still that did not settle her curiosity. What were the other modules for? She activated another. It opened to a message. The face of an ugly blue scaled beast appeared and it spoke in a foreign tongue that she had never heard before. There was a translation however, and she selected it.

         What in the...universe! It seemed to be offering of truce on conditions that had to be spoken in person. What kind of truce? Is that why the army was there? What kind of species was this because she had never studied anything that related to a monster like this before?

         Voices at the door caught her attention and she scurried to shut off the module.

         “I need to find Vio's research module and return it before she figures out that it's gone.” The door unlocked.

         Vio gasped, spun around, and held back a whimper while she leaped for the closet.

         “Lights” Her father's voice rumbled into the room.

         Vio married her back into the wall, curled into a ball. The door to the closet had slats to allow airflow into the tight space, but it also gave her a good view of what was going on.

         Her heart pounded, and she fought to control her breathing.

         Hellion turned while holding a ball of neon orange light in his right hand. “Just look at this, Vidary, we've been trying to figure out how to control this for years and now we have it. Maybe now you can redo the spell on your wife to shut her up.”

         Vidary's large physique and sharp blue hair moved in between Vio and her father. “Hellion, I don't think we should trust these aliens. I know that we established a communication with them, but they're attacking the Eighth Galaxy as we speak.”

         Hellion's voice boomed with excitement. “Rubbish! You must make contact again. I will perfect the spell. I have just the creature in mind to practice on.”

         “What about Vio? Wasn't the plan to control her so we can finish the Prolon project before we go public with our intentions?”

         “Vidary, you worry too much. Everything's going just as I planned, down to the Linary girl across the Asteroid Reef.”

         “There's another problem that I have with your plan; I don't see how your attempt at creating an abomination helps us.”

         “Silence, Vidary. It's not for you to understand. It is for you to trust and obey my orders. Now, I want to make contact again with this new species. They want to meet in person, and Melinary is just the place.

         Vidary shuffled and from what she knew of the General he was not convinced. She was not convinced, what was her father talking about? 

         “Vidary, I remember when you came to me with your brother's fiancee nearly lifeless in your arms years ago. I helped you then and ever since, you've been struggling to keep Diallah under your control. Now that we've discovered more about this, you want to back out?”

         What did they do to Diallah? Periillia's mother always seemed a little depressed, but she had always figured that Periillia's mother and father just didn't get along. Vio moved forward to try and get a good look at the orange ball that he held. It glowed and shined like little spikes covered its surface.

         Her father grinned as if he had just received a new toy. “I know that there's more to this elemental power than what you stumbled on. I know that with this I can take full control of a person in life, and beyond. Deep into the halls of Unarlaxiam I can travel with this. I can keep one foot in the Universe while placing the other in Unarlaxiam. If I gain control of the hall of reincarnation the possibilities are endless. Vidary, we can become immortal. But we need to take from specific sources.”

         Vidary shuffled to the right and gave Vio a clear view of her father's face and shoulder length, wavy red hair. His green eyes glowed with a sickening evil glare. Vio closed her eyes to stop the tears but did not win. How could she have trusted him all those years? Had Ladonno been right all along?

         “That is why I need this Linary girl. She's perfect. Her species has an elemental attachment to nature that would make a newborn from her bloodline a perfect match to take me into the halls of reincarnation.”

         “So you're saying that she'll bear the abomination, but it will only live long enough to provide you a passageway into Unarlaxiam?”

         “They'll both only live long enough for that. You know as well as I do that the only way to bypass the hall of memories is to have no memories of which to purify; bypassing the hall of death, hall of memories, and straight into the hall of reincarnation. From there I would gain control over who gets reborn and who doesn't. You can do the same.

         Did he really plan on trying to enter Unarlaxiam? What kind of strange magic could do that? And what was his plan for a Linary girl? None of it made any sense.

         Hellion tilted his head. “What? You thought I would actually share the genetic enhancement with another species? Are you insane?” Her father drew a fist around the orange object and crushed it. “Triton is supreme because we engineered ourselves. Now we have the ability to become absolutely powerful. The Universe and every life in it will bow to us.”

         Vidary snickered. “They practically already do.”

         “And these new aliens; they think they're going to trick us, but we've already turned it around on them.”

         Vidary stood straight. “Considering the war with these aliens; my daughter is in the Eighth Galaxy preparing to fight them alongside with your son. In fact, my rival General Ton placed her into the Black Stars in spite of me.”

         Vio's heart lept. Periillia was in Ladonno's team? Why didn't he tell her that?

         Hellion's face went blank. “Vidary, Ladonno is a pain in my ass, but I'll turn him whether he likes it or not.”

         No he wouldn't, Ladonno would never follow such and evil plan. He knew far before she did of his sinister ways. Now she couldn't believe what she was hearing. Oh, Ladonno, how wrong she was.

         Vidary's expression didn't change.

         “Fine! I'll call the Black Stars back as soon as we work out a cease fire agreement with the aliens. These—Xaltren, must be treated with care until we learn more about this power.”

Vidary nodded. “I'll get right on it.”

         “Now, before we go, I came in here for a reason. Yes, Vio's research module. It should be... in my storage closet over there.” He pointed in her direction.

         Vio gasped, but kept her mouth shut.