A S T R A

"I thought you said you didn't know anyone with the last name Melbourne?"

"I said I didn't know any scientists called Melbourne," I corrected her, "Scientists."

"Well we clearly just met one Astra!" She huffed, slamming the drawer closed "He made me look like a little bitch in front of literally everyone, got some of his," She gestured to her now shiny elbow, "Hair gel stuff on me and sauntered away after kissing my wife's stomach!"

"Well aren't you a ball of sunshine today..."

"And you!" She stuffed her hands into the next open drawer, hauling out the next landyard filled with keys. "I saw the way he looked at you, well how he looked at 'Teegan'," She airquoted "I thought you said the human was head over heels for Kofi, you mentioned nothing about an affair."

"Because there wasn't one going on last time I checked!" I exclaimed, using my one hand to fiddle around with our handcuffs. "Kofi and Teegan have been in love for ten years! Ten!, which in human terms is basically like half their lives!"

She Looked at me with horror "They live two decades?"

"Yes?" i shrugged "Well basically, but anyways the point is she wouldn't just throw it away for a cheap affair, and besides Ambrose has always been a flirt."

"Oh so now your memories working again, you remember Ambrose when it's convenient huh?"

I huffed "It's not like that, I just," I dropped the metal so that I could reach up and rub the space between my brows "When you described-well when the journal described this criminal highly-intelligent mastermind I just...Ambrose was just not really what I had in mind."

"You shouldn't underestimate people, could really put us in some trouble later on if you're going around judging people at surface level," She pointed out to me, her eyes falling back onto the lanyard. "I think I found the key we're looking for."

"Took you long enough, sunshine," I snorted, getting to my feet and putting the thin metal into my pocket. As we packed up to exit Teegan's office I felt the need to further explain myself so I spoke up. "If you'd known him before you'd understand why I'd be skeptical to believe this," I gestured to our surroundings, "Was his idea."

"What? Is he some sort of sweet guy?" She asked, pulling the key we needed from the lanyard and holding it between her teeth so she could fix up the drawer.

I frowned "Quite the opposite actually," I said, "Ambrose Melbourne is what i'd describe as average, a bit below that in intelligence but the only competent thing I can think of about him is his looks and even those are just above subpar."

"Do the people of earth consider him stunning?' Sol asked, as we exited Teegans office.

I cringed "Kinda, beauty is weird there but I guess he'd be a looker back on earth. But thats not the point. The only great thing about Ambrose was his parents," I told her honestly as we used a map to direct ourselves to the basement. 'They were considered to have some of the biggest brains on the planet when they were alive."

"And they had a simple kid?"

"Great people don't usually have great children, it's sort of a curse, especially when said parents are rich," I sighed, "They practically paid his way through school for him, he was the typical spoilt rich kid with the whole entitlement, people befriending him for his money left and right and lets not to forget the rape allegations mommy paid off for him," I muttered the last part bitterly, "Ambrose isn't exactly someone who could conquer a planet."

"Yet here we are," Sol chuckled dryly as she stuck the key into the large metal door we were now face to face with, "Standing on his planet."

"I honestly don't know how it could've happened, theres so much to this story and so much of it doesn't make sense," I filled behind her as we walked through what we'd seen on the security cameras, a dungeon, long and cold and presumably where the kept the now dead martians when they were still experimenting on them. "I wish I could explain it to you but it's just, like I have the end of the story without the climax or beginning."

"We're not at the end of the story, Astra," Sol reminded me as we finally stopped before the big door at the end of the dungeon. It had piqued our interest and we were curious to see why this room contained no cameras. "Not until I say we are."

I went to the corner where a touchpad was in the wall, a similar thing that was near every door in the building. Lucky for us Teegan should definitely have access to this room. I swiped my wrist over the touchpad and a loading screen was shown to me momentarily before the screen flashed green.

'Welcome, Sergeant Callahway. Access granted."

Sol waited for me to move so we could enter but quickly got impatient "Are we going in or...?"

I pressed my eyes together, my lip slipping between my teeth "Actually, would you mind taking a peek first? Just in case there's something in there that could make me-" The words died in my throught but Sol understood me almost immediately.

"Of course of course, I'll take the first look and tell you if everything's alright," She assured me kindly. I nodded and turned my head around, taking in a deep breath when she walked inside first.

The silence that followed made me uneasy. "Well? Sol, is it...bloody in there."

"Astra just...open your eyes."

I built my confidence for a moment before peeling my eyes open and taking a look.

S O L

Astra fell to her knees.

My legs felt weak myself and so I joined her on the floor gazing up at the the rows and rows of hung up wings that lined the walls, dried blood at the end of them, lucky for Astra you could only tell what it was if you squinted.

A sob tour through Astra's throat and soon she was shaking with tears, her hand trembling as she reached up to unlatch her helmet from her head. "I-I thought if you tore their wings off their backs that would-

"Paralyze them? It does." I answered her simply.

My eyes ran over the darly coloured feathers, all shades of browns, greys and blacks (besides the splatter of reds on some of the wings). All of the black horns at the end of the wings were broken off, their tips in a bag underneath them.

Their last defense systems, put in dirty bags as if they were nothing.

The way the wings were pinned up intricately made me sick it was almost as if they were keeping the wings as-

"Trophies," Astra whispered, rising to her feet to touch the wing closest to her, "They killed them, took their planet, forcefully impregnated their women and then kept a part of their bodies as trophies."

Numbers were above each set of wings and it didn't take me long to find out they were in order of which person's wings got taken first. They labelled people as numbers as if heir identities didn't matter, hung their shame up as if they didn't matter.

"One, two, three," I muttered to myself counting before grabbing Astras hand and dragging her down the rows, towards the back.

"Where are we going?!"

I ignored her and continued counting "One thousand and seventy nine, nineteen thousand three hundred and eighty four, eight six thousand one hundred and thirty..."We were now running down the aisles, well I was running and Astra was being dragged behind me as she called out questions to me that faded behind my numbers.

It almost felt like we were moving forever until I finally came to a stop at the very end, where a lone pair of wings sat. I didn't need to identify the number to know this was the one I was looking for. It was the last.

They were one of the biggest we'd come across, and had one of it horns still attached whilst the other was broken off jaggedly as if it were done in a rush or by mistake. The wings were almost black with only it's tips being brown and this set was the bloodiest with many of the feathers missing and enough flesh showing as if they had been grabbed harshly and yanked off unevenly.

"Sol what-

"These are Tempest's."

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