Escaping Relativity

The blood ran hot in Xander’s veins, and the high pitched ringing in his ears told him adrenaline was dumping into his system in crazy high amounts. He was going to kill the bastard who tortured Brick. Xander was pretty sure he was going to kill them all anyway, but the smug son of a bitch in the background was the one Xander would take his time with; the Rynthian.

“You told me you wouldn’t hurt him, Sojo,” Xander said, speaking around the knot in his throat.

“You told me you’d have the girl before now. Our contract is looking a little negligible at the moment,” Sojo responded. He was a large brute of a man, of course most Flendah were; even their women were tall and muscular. Yet, this particular Flendah was meaner and uglier than most. As was characteristic of his people, his lower teeth protruded prominently out of his mouth, his deep purple skin stood out against bright yellow eyes, and his head was devoid of hair except for one long braid which started immediately over his eyes and fell down his back. However, what was the largest and most remarkable difference between Sojo and the rest of his kind was a head full of burn marks on either side of the braid.

The most important characteristic of Sojo was that he led a notorious and large group of pirates who called themselves The Dilligara. They were made up of every different being there was. Aliens, which ranged from shape-shifters to humans and even artificially intelligent droid-bots. They all pledged their allegiance to Sojo in exchange for anything they wanted. Sojo denied them nothing except the power and respect he was due. They all worked for him, and they were holding ransom his younger brother in order to make Xander work for him as well.

“You don’t even know who or where the girl is, yet you think I can find Female X; by the time you want me to? At the very least it’s not Brick’s fault!”

“I simply thought you needed some persuasion, some...motivation; and now, you seem much more motivated,” Sojo said.

“If you put one more finger on him, or hurt him any more in any way I swear to you the moment I bring her to you, I will kill you,” Xander pointed at the man in the background, “slowly, in ways people only whisper of.”

“You have four terms left,” Sojo responded. His voice flat, obviously not caring one way or the other about Xander’s threats.

“Oh, and if you think for one second about killing him, remember something. I’ll have the girl.”

Xander immediately disconnected the visu-link; the image of Sojo disappearing and the transparency of the screen returning until there was nothing in front of him but the openness of the universe. Bright beautiful stars, moons, planets and suns against the eternal black curtain of space.

“Damn it! Ahhhhhh!” Xander screamed, kicking over some empty crates from his last haul.

What was he going to do? How was he supposed to find this mystery woman?

Just because they had replicated the DNA from the last human Time Keeper, didn’t mean anyone knew where she was.

The Allegiant’s top geneticists had been looking for the genome abnormality in all of the medically recorded ancestry and heir-ship lines; and apparently, they discovered she should be alive somewhere. Finding her whenever and wherever was his problem and his job. He was a Tracker, a Master Tracker. He could find anything or anyone. Except her.

Damn it!

Xander had to find her, or his brother was as good as dead. He really hadn’t cared one way or another about The Time Keeper; however, the people who did care, wanted to make sure Xander would not only care, but that he would spare no expense or time in finding her.

He no longer had a choice. He had to go to The Allegiant for help. How he was going to keep the two worlds from colliding and killing he and Brick in the process was beyond him. He would come up with something though. He always did.