Onyx (A YA SciFi Retelling of Othello) Read online

  Onyx:

  A Re-telling of Othello

  Smashwords Edition

  by

  Alicia Michaels

  Onyx

  Smashwords Edition

  Alicia Michaels

  Copyright 2016 by Alicia Michaels

  Edited by Lyssa Chiavari

  Cover Art by MNS Art Studio

  All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form whatsoever.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are a product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, places, or people, living or dead, is coincidental.

  Chapter One

  “O, beware, my lord, of jealousy;

  It is the green-ey'd monster, which doth mock

  The meat it feeds on. That cuckold lives in bliss,

  Who, certain of his fate, loves not his wronger:

  But O, what damnèd minutes tells he o'er

  Who dotes, yet doubts, suspects, yet strongly loves!

  --From Othello

  Napet Space Station

  Laro Pub

  3015

  The low buzz of conversation filled the crowded taproom, mixing with the obnoxious electronica music blasting from the speaker system. Scantily-clad waitresses in metallic miniskirts served neon-colored mixed drinks and foaming brews. The majority of the bar’s patrons consisted of men in uniform—soldiers of Earth’s army dressed in plain black-and-gray uniforms with their ranks denoted by pins attached on starched collars.

  The atmosphere felt jovial, despite the many problems plaguing the human race as a whole. As Isaias Royce hunched over his foaming mug, he eyed them all with undisguised disdain. They acted as if their planet hadn’t been destroyed by their own negligence and waste, as if they didn’t float, homeless, on a space station, just waiting until a new planet could be found and prepared for them. They acted as if they’d forgotten the countless lives lost, decimating the population to less than a million. No, all they cared about was their liquor and their half-naked waitresses.

  Meanwhile, he had problems of his own.

  Sighing, he tipped the mug back and drained it to the dregs, throat bobbing as the cold brew made its way down.

  “What’s eating you?”

  The voice of Reid Blackford, a specialist from his unit, snapped him out of his reverie. Isaias frowned. As a captain, Isaias outranked him, yet Reid seemed to have forgotten that. The fact that they were distant cousins had made Reid overly familiar and downright annoying.

  “Nothing,” he snapped, signaling the bartender for a refill. “Sit.”

  Reid obeyed, ordering his own beer as Isaias’ was delivered.

  “Nothing, hm?” Reid mumbled, drumming his fingers against the bar top in the most bothersome way. “Less than twenty-four hours after Cronius March makes first lieutenant, and I find you sulking in a bar. And you say it’s nothing.”

  Isaias’ scowl deepened. Reaching across the space separating them, he grabbed Reid’s wrist in a tight hold, dragging the young man toward him until the legs of his stool scraped against the floor and they sat almost nose to nose.

  “Watch yourself,” he growled.

  Shoving Reid back into his seat, he hunched back over his fresh mug.

  Straightening his rumpled uniform, Reid frowned. “Geez, relax! I just thought…”

  “That’s your problem. You don’t think. It’s just so… it’s unfair,” he muttered. “Several recommendations from his fellow officers, added to my list of achievements should have been enough. I should have known he would give it to someone else. That black bastard and his damned superiority, thinking he’s better than everyone else just because—”

  “Would you keep your voice down?” Reid hissed, glancing around nervously. His gaze landed on a black couple laughing and talking nearby.

  Isaias laughed. “God, you really are an idiot. The major isn’t black like them. It’s unnatural, that dark skin and those eyes.”

  “It’s why they gave him the name Onyx,” Reid remarked, “because his Ethelene name was too hard to pronounce.”

  “That’s another thing,” Isaias scoffed. “He isn’t even one of us, how can they promote him to lead?”

  Reid shrugged. “I don’t like it any more than you do, but what can we do about it? Nineteen years old and already a major. I can’t stand the prick, but you have to at least admit he’s accomplished a lot, considering how he came to be here. The last of his kind, I heard.”

  “I don’t have to admit anything,” he countered. “All I have to do is bide my time.”

  “I hear you were offered a position as his ensign. A cushy job with more money, and you get to be his right hand.”

  “His right hand, huh? Maybe that idea has some merit. As his right hand, I could kill him and make it seem like he did it to himself.”

  Reid’s eyebrows furrowed in confusion. “Huh?”

  “Nothing,” Isaias replied, brushing him off with an absent wave of his hand. “You wouldn’t have understood anyway.”

  Reid had always been incredibly dense.

  “Won’t last long anyway,” Reid said between gulps of beer. “When the general finds out what he’s done, he’ll discharge him faster than you can blink.”

  This got his attention. He straightened on his stool, eyebrows raising toward his hairline. “You have dirt on the major? Spill.”

  Reid gazed left to right, ensuring no one could overhear them. “Word has it, he’s been screwing the colonel’s daughter.”

  A wide grin spread across his face, and glee filled him so quickly he almost couldn’t contain the chuckle welling in his chest.

  “Oh my God, that’s insane. And he has no idea?”

  “He’s clueless.”

  Isaias frowned. “Didn’t you have a thing with her once?”

  Reid lowered his eyes, seemingly embarrassed by the reminder. Twin spots of red appeared on his cheeks. “Yeah, but it wasn’t a big deal.”

  He snorted. “Right, and I’m sure seeing them together has no effect on you. Thinking about him touching her with those alien hands—”

  “All right!” Reid snapped, his entire face red now. “Maybe it does bother me. Whatever. It’s not like there’s anything I can do about it.”

  Isaias paused, his mug lifted halfway to his lips. “Or, is there?”

  Reid set his mug down and perked up, turning to face him. “I’m listening.”

  “Well, I see this sort of thing all the time. Just because Colonel Tian likes Onyx as a soldier, doesn’t mean he wants the Ethelene sniffing around his daughter. Why do you think they’re keeping it a secret?”

  “You’re not thinking …”

  Isaias stood and signaled the bartender to close out his tab.

  “Yes,” he declared. “I’m thinking it’s high time the colonel learned what his precious little girl’s been up to.”

  Dia Tian stared through the panoramic window of the cramped hotel room, giving her a picture-perfect view of deep space. In the days of the apocalypse, when mankind faced certain death if they did not evacuate their home planet, the galaxy had seemed like such an intimidating place—a yawning, endless sea of blackness filled with the unknown.

  Now that she’d lived on various space stations, though, she’d discovered comfort in being so close to the stars. They twinkled much closer now, interspersed with clouds dyed various colors by naturally-occurring gases. No manmade thing could compete.

  “Daydreaming again?”

  The deep voice intruding on her solitude brought a smile to her face. Turning, she locked gazes with the soldier who’
d stolen her heart.

  “Am I, Onyx?” she asked, walking to join him in the center of the room. It didn’t feel so cramped with him here. Everything—the entire world—seemed far vaster with him in it. “If I’m dreaming, then I never want to wake up.”

  He smiled, something he rarely did. When they’d first met, Dia had thought his hard face intimidating and harsh. Now that she knew the secrets his lips concealed, she appreciated his usually placid expression. It made his rare smiles all the more enchanting—a perfect display of white teeth against his black-as-night skin.

  They called him an alien, which she supposed he was, being from another planet and all. Yet to her he seemed to possess more humanity than most people she knew. They called him odd, and believed him to be inherently evil just because of where he’d been born. But she knew better. With her, he’d never been anything but good—open, honest, loving. She couldn’t have asked for better if she’d tried.

  He wrapped his arms around her, leaning down from his towering height to kiss her forehead. “I’m afraid the dream has to end sometime. We can’t go on like this.”

  Sighing, she leaned into him, resting her face against his chest. Instead of a heartbeat, the inside of his chest emitted a low, steady hum—like machinery. Yet, his skin felt warm and he drew in air just like she did. They really weren’t so different. If she could see that, why were others so blind?

  “I know,” she replied. “Not like it matters anymore. No one can break us up. We won’t let them.”

  Hiding their relationship had been her idea, not his. Lying wasn’t programmed into the DNA of the Ethelene, who had been a highly intelligent species. They believed in knowledge and truth, and shunned deceit. Onyx was the last of his kind, and she’d corrupted him by making him more human. However, she’d known her dad would never understand. If he’d known for a moment that she cared anything for Onyx, he’d have sent her clear across the galaxy to another space station. He’d have kept moving her around to keep her out of the major’s reach, until one or both of them lost interest, or until she could be married off to someone more ‘suitable’.

  “I don’t like lying to the colonel,” he said, taking her shoulders and pulling her back so he could look into her eyes. “I want everyone to know we belong to each other.”

  She smiled up at him and reached up to caress his strong, dark jaw. “They will. Let’s go tell him now, together. The sooner it ends, the sooner he’ll get over it and we can get on with our lives.”

  His fathomless eyes, as dark as his skin, glittered like precious gems and he smiled again. “I like the sound of that.”

  Lifting her to meet his height, he kissed her, taking her breath away. Everything that existed outside the door of their tiny hotel room faded away, and for that moment, there remained only the two of them.

  A knock sounded at the door, and Onyx reluctantly released her. His hawkish gaze darted to the door.

  “It’s probably room service or housekeeping,” he reassured her. “No one knows we’re here.”

  That proved untrue when he crossed the room to open the door. The major’s personal ensign, Captain Isaias Royce, stood on the other side, an expression of shock on his face as he glanced past Onyx and saw her standing there.

  Her cheeks grew hot, but she refused to act like she was embarrassed. They hadn’t done anything wrong.

  Snapping to attention, Isaias saluted Onyx with a swift, sharp motion.

  “I apologize for disturbing you, Major, but when I went to your first lieutenant and told him it was an emergency, he told me where you were. I understand that you’re off today, but—”

  “It’s all right, Royce,” he replied. “What is it?”

  “The council has gathered and you’re being summoned. Now.”

  Onyx turned back into the room, crossing toward the garment bag draped across the bed. “Go back and tell them I’ll be there shortly. I just need to change into my dress uniform.”

  “Of course, Sir.”

  Saluting again, the ensign backed out of the room, leaving them alone once again.

  “What do you think that was all about?” Dia asked, wringing her hands as she watched him change. “You don’t think they’re sending you out again, do you? You just got back.”

  He shrugged, reaching for his shirt. Dark, Ethelene tattoos covered his chest and back in an intricate pattern, etched over rippling muscles. Despite his serene expression, she noticed his darting eyes. He was thinking.

  “It’s possible,” he replied. “It doesn’t matter to them that I just got back. My unit has the best success rate, and the Matsai have been stirring up trouble all over the galaxy. If I’m needed, they’ll call me and there’s nothing I can do. It’s my duty, Dia.”

  Feeling bad for making him think she’d want him to do otherwise, she came forward and began helping him with his buttons.

  “I’m a colonel’s daughter,” she reminded him. “I’ve watched my father leave for explorations and battles since I was a little girl. I’m proud to watch you do the same.”

  He grasped her hands, stilling them when she reached for his tie. “Don’t be afraid.”

  She forced a smile. It was too late for that. The Earth Army had been exploring for almost a decade in search of an inhabitable planet. Along the way they’d encountered many hostile alien species, most of whom saw humans as inferior beings and wanted nothing more than to exterminate them. War had decimated their numbers, leaving them vulnerable to attack. The Matsai took that to mean one thing: open season on humans and their space stations.

  “I’m not,” she assured him. “So long as you come back to me.”

  Grasping her chin, he tipped her head back and kissed her as if stealing his last breath.

  “Always,” he whispered. “I will always come back to you.”

  Chapter Two

  Napet Space Station

  Earth Army—Space Flight Corps, Division III Headquarters

  Onyx entered one of several officers’ conference rooms contained within the building housing his division. The third division of Earth Army’s Space Flight Corps was nestled right at the heart of Napet’s gleaming city. Steel and glass reflected the light of billions of stars inward, lighting his way along the long corridor.

  The building was mostly empty, as it neared midnight. His commanding officers had summoned him in the dead of night for something they’d cited as ‘an emergency’. While Dia had feared his being sent out on a mission, he knew it had to be more than that. Assignments were never given in this haphazard manner. Officers were called in and given orders, which also got transmitted to them via email. The tablet he always kept nearby would have alerted him to any incoming orders or messages.

  There had been none.

  Which could only mean he’d been accused of some form of treachery. Again.

  He sighed, ensuring his posture remained erect as he marched into the room and to the center of the circle of tables where his superiors sat. Five years hadn’t been enough to prove him a good soldier, or a decent human being.

  Of course, he wasn’t human, but that didn’t seem to matter when he was killing off the Matsai for them. It didn’t matter when he took his orders like a good boy, and went the extra mile to ensure that he excelled at a level far beyond his peers. Sometimes, he thought perhaps he’d done it. Why else would they promote him to major if he hadn’t earned it—if they didn’t trust him?

  Yet, someone always feared him, or saw him as a foreigner infringing upon their privilege. It wasn’t enough that he’d lost his family and home—that his home planet had been destroyed in a war they had started. It didn’t matter that he’d spent most of his childhood in a prison, working to earn enough money to buy his freedom, or that as a soldier he had an impeccable record. After all, having an army full of young men—most of whom were no older than twenty-one—meant someone always found trouble. Drunkenness, sleeping around, bad conduct: all were offenses his fellow soldiers, both enlisted and officers, had been
found guilty of at one time or another.

  But not him. He’d always done everything he could to fit in, short of altering his dark, Ethelenian skin. He wouldn’t have even if he could.

  Standing at attention, he met the eyes of each of his superiors with confidence. Cowering had never been his style and he didn’t intend to start now.

  “Major,” said General Watrous from his place dead center. “Thank you for making haste to arrive promptly.”

  He inclined his head. “Of course. It’s late, and I’m certain you all wish to have this done with so you can return home.”

  To his left, Lieutenant General Wyke raised his bushy, grey eyebrows at him. “Do you know why we’ve asked you here tonight?”

  “No, sir,” he replied quickly. Rapid responses made them feel respected.

  “I want you to know that I think its bull,” the Lieutenant General said, shaking his head, his expression reading as one of annoyance. “But once the colonel brought the matter to our attention, I’m sure you realized it became our responsibility to investigate.”

  Onyx’s blood ran cold as his worst fear became reality. They knew about him and Dia.

  “Of course,” he said aloud, determined that they would never see him sweat. “You’re only doing your duty, like any good officer.”

  Wyke nodded in agreement. “Precisely.” Turning to his left, he got the attention of the private standing at attention near the closed door. “Show Tian in.”

  The door swung open and Colonel Tian entered, his face a mottled shade of red and a murderous glint in his eyes. He bared clenched teeth as he neared, marring his otherwise handsome features. He had the same porcelain skin, light blond hair, and hazel eyes as his daughter, though at the moment it became hard to see the resemblance.

  “I’ll see you decommissioned for this, you piece of alien trash,” he growled, so low only the two of them could hear.

  Anger boiled his blood, just beneath the surface of his skin, but Onyx ignored him, refusing to even acknowledge that the other man had spoken. If he showed anger, they would say they’d always expected him to act in such a way. He’d prove them right.