The First Hunter

Bet-Khar

"Why did he take her?" I ask.

"Cet-Khar asked him to." Zahraun spat.

"Only because you tried to mark her." Bal-Khan corrects.

Zahraun glower at Bal-Khan. "She smelled of Bet-Khar. He tried to mark her first." He says angrily.

"What?" I ask in shock. "What do you mean?"

"Apparently, the human is triggering your older brother's mating cycle." We all turn at the same time at the sound of Cet-Khar's sarcastic voice.

He's got my full attention now. "Explain." I order.

"I didn't have the chance to scan the human because our brother would not allow anybody to touch her." He glare at Zahraun. " All I know is that human females are in heat for up to seven to ten days, every month. It's possible that males are attracted by the pheromones put off by females during that time." Cet-Khar explains.

"Humans don't have a mating season?" I ask in confusion.

"My understanding is that our kind have a lifespan of thousands of years, so our females go into heat much less frequently. Humans are short lived, so the females have peaks in heat, I mean fertility, every month. Human arousal is controlled more by their minds and feelings, as opposed the Yautja, who are controlled by hormones. This is why Zahraun can't control himself. The scent of the human's fertility automatically sends his brain into mating-mode."

He pause and give Zahraun a sympathetic look. "She can become aroused at any time, and she is fertile every month. Human females can reproduce the whole year round."

"You are telling me that we will have to endure Zahraun's foul mood every month? Because of the human?" I ask in disbelieve.

Zahraun take an angry step toward me but I ignore him. I'm too busy grimacing at this new information. Did I share my bed with a human in heat? No, I can't think about it. Not now at least. I need to focus, to control my anger and frustration.

"Hummmm, that explains Zahraun's recent temper." Bal-khan says. "I've never seen you so possessive and territorial as you were last night, brother."

"You are lucky to be alive." Cet-Khar says to Bal-Khan. "What a nasty fight you two had yesterday... I was the one who called for Celtic. The human female needed to be taken somewhere safe until her fertility window is over. And hopefully, Zahraun will not longer be possessed by Cetanu when that happens."

Zahraun let out a menacing grown but Cet-Khar didn't even flinch. He is accustomed to Zahraun's hot temper.

"Is Zahraun the only male on this ship affected by this 'fertility pheromone'?" I needed to know.

"I believe so. No symptoms have been reported thus far." Cet-Khar says.

Zahraun narrow his eyes  at my question.

Bal-Khan speaks calmly, "I deem it fitting that Celtic was chosen to keep the female safe, for the time being."

Zahraun looks at Bal-Khan with blazing fury. "Pick whichever male you see fit for the job. My path is mine to walk as I deem fit."

Zahraun's fury was heavy enough to make Bal-Khan and Cet-Khar lower their stance further.

I snorted in amusement, though I heard the note of tension in my own voice.

"How the fuck did I get us into this mess? I should never have brought her to my ship. It was all because of my curiosity and my affinity for new things." I sigh heavily. Beneath it all, the strange sense of yearning... of protectiveness, I could not deny it. But my brothers need NOT to know this.

The room is silent for a moment. There is no better time than now to reveal the information I've kept secret.

"The communication earpiece that I placed inside the human's ear-canals is embedded with a tracking device. So is Celtic's Mission craft, this warship, and everything else designed by me... all the mechanisms I design work like this - even when it's not activated to share information in real time, it will still collect data that can be accessed by me only."

I see my brothers expression ranging from confusion to alarm, betrayal, anger...

"How many intergalactic laws can you break in a single day?" Bal-Khan says to me angrily.

"You track my ship's activities?" Zahraun ask, incredulous.

"Not necessarily. The system collects data to improve itself. I may access these data from time to time to optimize the system and prevent security breach."

"I will deal with your illegalities later. Can you track Celtic's ship?" Bal-Khan ask.

"I should have been able to track both his ship and the human's earpiece. However, the last log happened over six hours ago. I believe they left this solar system to enter an exoplanet. Thats the only explanation since the tracking systems are not longer within range."

"We might be able to get close enough to track Celtic's ship if he lands on a exoplanet that is orbiting other stars. But free-floating exoplanets orbit the galactic center and are untethered to any star. If that's the case, we will never find them." Bal-Khan says.

Zahraun begins to pace as he strategize our next move. "Most exoplanets are found through indirect methods - we measure the dimming of a star that happens to have a planet pass in front of it, or monitor the spectrum of a star for the signs of a planet pulling on its star and causing its light to subtly doppler shift." Noticing our confusion, he elaborates further. "Change in frequency of a wave in relation to an observer who is moving relative to the wave source."

He activates the holographic computer to make a point. "This is where we are. Now show me Celtic's last tracked location." He ask me.

I pull the logs recorded from Celtic's ship and transfer to Zahraun's screen.

"You see? We can find thousands of planets by observing "transits," the slight dimming of light from a star when its planet passes between it and our radar." Zahraun says. "You see this pattern?" I nod. "The ship entered a wormhole, and it exited either on Kráľomoc,
Tkkar, or TrES." Zahraun says triumphantly.

"If you are correct, when we near one of these 3 exoplanets, the ship's system will be near enough to be reached." I say.

Zahraun gives me a sharp nod. "I am correct. Every single male trained to undertake missions on dark planets and exoplanets had to be trained before being sent into mission. I taught them everything they know, but not everything I know. Celtic cannot hide from me."

This is the Zahraun I grew up with - a level headed Elite , a savage  commander. His unwavering will and determination make him strive for the best solutions.

Zahraun takes a deep breath as if to calm his nerves. It is not his fault that our brother took the human across the galaxy. If I hadn't brought her to the warship, she would've never been in harm's way. This is all my fault. She must be frighten and confused.

" I will do everything possible to help." I promise Zahraun.

"I want to tear Celtic apart, rip him up piece by piece and hear him scream in agony. I wanted to eviscerate the male I'd once called 'brother' and bathe in his blood." Zahraun says with a vengeance as he takes the commander's seat and engage faster-than-light travel.

He rescue mission has began.