River’s Run

Chapter 3-2

“Torak,” a voice called out hoarsely.

Torak shook his head to try to clear it. He focused on pushing the pain in his chest where he had taken a blast from the stunner. Looking up, he saw all his men chained to the walls, most of them just regaining consciousness. He looked up to see he was chained as well by both his arms and legs. Looking around, he frowned when he didn’t see his younger brother, Jazin, with the others. His eyes narrowed when he saw Jazin chained to bars in the center of the room.

“Is everyone else here?” Torak asked harshly.

He was furious. The Alliance had a treaty with the Tearnats. He knew Trolis was a deadly opponent. He had fought against him in the wars before the treaty had been signed. He had not known Trolis had gone rogue until recently. The wars had ended two years before, and a tentative peace had been achieved with the Tearnats. Trolis had been a commander during the war and was the second son of the ruling family. He had not been happy with the decision to end the war, even though the Alliance had vastly outnumbered the Tearnats in both technology and in warships.

Made up of over twenty different galaxies, the Alliance provided safe passage and support to ships traveling between the galaxies. Torak was a member of the ruling family of the Kassis star system. They were one of the most powerful members of the Alliance.

His people were very advanced technologically and had the most powerful warships. He, his younger brother by three years, and ten of his best men had been on a diplomatic mission with the head chancellor of the Alliance, Krail Taurus of the Dramentic star system. They had been on the chancellor’s shuttle on their way to intercept Torak’s warship, the Galaxy Quest, when Trolis had fired upon them, taking out their engines.

The chancellor had insisted they allow the shuttle to be taken and felt confident a diplomatic solution could be reached. Now the chancellor was dead, and he and his men were prisoners. His only hope was that the emergency signal he had sent out to his brother, Manota, would be received. If so, Manota might be able to reach them in time.

Torak’s eyes narrowed when three of Trolis’ men came into the room. He recognized one of them as Progit. He had fought against Progit and given him a nasty reminder of their encounter by cutting off one of his arms. Progit hissed loudly when he saw Torak. If the Tearnats could grin, Torak could have sworn Progit had one on his ugly face.

“So, we meet again, Kassis scum,” Progit hissed. He pulled up his double-edged sword and made as if he was inspecting it.

“Progit,” Torak replied. “You are much more confident when you have me chained. Release me, and we can settle what we started three years ago,” Torak taunted the huge creature.

Progit just hissed. Pulling his sword, he swung it around before letting it cut a thin line across Jazin’s cheek. Blood began pouring from the wound.

Torak growled. “Your battle is with me.” He strained against the chains holding him.

“Not this time. This time Trolis has given me the right to extract revenge. I am going to start by gutting your brother in front of you. I’ll cut him up into little pieces, one piece at a time, so you can hear him scream. Then, I am going to do it to each of your men. By the time I am finished, you will know exactly what you can expect,” Progit hissed with satisfaction.

Torak growled louder. “I’ll kill you.”

Progit just grinned as he nodded to the other two creatures with him. “Pull him tight. I want him to feel every cut I make in him. I think I will take his arm first.”

Jazin looked at Torak with a grim expression. Holding his head high, he spoke calmly. “I will meet you in the next life, brother. Fight well.”

Torak looked at his younger brother, feeling overwhelming despair at the thought of watching him die such a painful death. “Die well, brother. Until we meet in the next life,” he whispered.

Progit hissed his amusement. “So touching. Let’s see how well he screams as he dies.” Raising his sword above his head, he let out what could only resemble a malicious laugh.