by Maia Starr
"Who is down there?!” a voice shouted from on top of the stairs.
Truo, his companion, and I grew silent. We all looked at each other with wide eyes.
"There's someone down there!” More alien warriors shouted from the top of the stairs.
"We will be caught,” his companion whispered.
"Follow me. There's only one way out of here. There's no turning back now,” Truo said as he grabbed my arm and ran. I moved my legs as fast as I could to try to keep up with the large stride of the 8-foot tall aliens. I was out of breath, and I was terrified. If I were caught below the fortress with Truo and his companion who were plotting a revolution, I would be put to death.
"This way," Truo whispered as the sound of boots filled the underground passage, echoing off the walls as alien warriors shouted directions to each other. It was frightening. It sounded like there were many that suddenly flooded the underground passages hunting us.
"We are almost there," Truo whispered.
I was scared. I was confused. But I was not prepared for what Truo had in mind, where he was leading us.
Chapter 10
TRUO SEEDUON, SECOND COMMAND
It was now or never. We had been caught. All was at stake now. We had to make a run for it. I led Sitione and Vera through the maze of underground passages as the warriors from the fortress chased us. I could hear their boots getting louder and louder. Finally, we came to the end of the passage that led out onto the surface, to my escape pod.
"You can't be serious? I'm not getting in that!” Vera shouted at me as she saw what I intended to do: get us off the asteroid.
"Here is your chance! This is your chance for escape!" I shouted at her, confused by her reluctance to leave. This is what she had been wanting since she arrived; it's what anyone that was being held against their will would want. “Sitione, get in the ship and start the engines!"
"I'm on it!” he responded. He climbed into the ship and Vera was pulling away from me. I held her arm.
"But Marcus! My husband! He is still here!" she shouted. “We must get him too!”
"Vera I have told you before! Marcus is not here, he has never been here. He has passed away,” I told her, confused as to why she was suddenly thinking that he was alive.
"You lie! You lied to me about everything! Cyro is going to let me see him. He is alive, and he is here!” she shouted as tears came to her eyes.
"He lied to you! I do not lie to you! Your husband is dead! Now get in the ship before it is too late. We must get away from here,” I said to her, trying to pull her towards the ship. Out of my haste, I was rougher with her than I should have been.
“Be careful! My baby!” she shouted.
I turned to her stunned. Was she saying what I thought she was saying?
“Vera, you are with offspring?!” I shouted at her.
Her eyes were full of fear as she said, “Yes, I am pregnant. Do not touch me.”
"Get away from her,” Cyro said as he came out of the end of the passage. There was one other warrior with him.
"Traitor! You are trying to steal my wife from me! She is with offspring! My offspring, and now you try to steal her?!” he shouted in anger. “Seize him!”
The warrior came toward me.
"Vera, get on the ship!” I shouted as I got in front of her, guarding her from Cyro, and braced myself for the warrior to charge me. He hit me hard in the gut. I punched him on the side, the left side without scales, very hard. It was just the right spot to make him double over. I grabbed his head and smashed it down into my knee. Bam! He fell onto the ground, unconscious.
"She is mine!” Cyro shouted as he charged me with a knife drawn. Bam! He knocked me off my feet. We rolled across the ground as his knife came down, stabbing at me, nearly missing me. I grabbed his hand that held the knife, pushing it away from me. He was very strong, and it took all of my strength to keep the knife from stabbing me. I could hear more warriors shouting down the passageway; they were close. I would not be able to fend off all of them.
The engines roared to life on the pod. I had to make a move. We had to leave right that second. I kneed Cyro in the ribs. Bam! He tumbled over onto his side, but as he did so, the knife slipped and gouged deep into my left arm.
"Ahhh!" I shouted as it pierced my flesh. With my right fist, I punched Cyro in the face. I pulled out the knife stuck in my arm. Blood oozed out of the wound as I did so. Then I hit Cyro on the back of the head with the handle, very hard. He fell forward in a daze, unable to stand up. I made my way to the door of the ship.
"Vera, you must come with me! You cannot stay here!” I shouted at her holding my hand out to her while my left arm bled.
"I don't know! But my husband!” she shouted crying.
"I cannot force you to go with me. But do you really want to stay here? You want to stay here with Cyro? Your husband is dead. I know you do not believe it, but it is the truth. He is not here. If you stay now, you will be here forever with Cyro,” I said, climbing into the doorway.
"I don't know… I don't know…” she repeated over and over in tears.
I held my hand out to her from the doorway. She looked at Cyro on the floor getting up slowly. The sound of warriors in the passageway was getting louder.
"Truo! We must go now if we are to get away!” Sitione shouted.
"You have made your decision. You are staying,” I said to Vera as I pulled my arm back in the spaceship, ready to close the door.
"Wait!" she shouted as she began to climb into the doorway. I held my hand out to her and pulled her in. I closed the door behind her.
"Now! Launch now!" I shouted at Sitione.
I pushed Vera back into a seat, “Buckle up now!” I shouted as I sat down in the seat and buckled in and then I held pressure on my bleeding left arm.
The space pod shot forward into the air, zooming along the surface of the asteroid and then flew off the edge into the blackness of space.
"They will be launching spaceships in less than five minutes to come after us. Launch into hyperspeed as soon as you can!” I shouted at Sitione.
"Where will we go?! We can't go to the High Council like this!”
"No! We can't! Make a course for Altid. There is a small asteroid nearby without a tribe that will give us temporary cover until I can figure something out!” I shouted at him.
"Plotting course for Altid! Hold on; jumping into hyperspeed!” Sitione shouted.
I looked at my bleeding arm. I looked over at Vera. She was crying with her head in her hands. She truly believed that she had left her husband behind.
Then she looked up at me, “You're bleeding,” she said as she unbuckled her belt and moved over to my arm.
"Yeah, he stabbed me,” I said to her. “I'll be fine,” I sai, looking at her delicate face.
"No, you are bleeding a lot,” she said as she moved around the spaceship.
"In the back. There are containers with emergency supplies,” I said to her.
She moved to the back and I could hear her shuffling through different containers. She returned with some antiseptic and bandages. She got on her knees beside me and began to clean my wounded arm.
"Thank you,” I said to her.
"Don't thank me. I should just let you bleed to death,” she said angrily.
"Don't say that, Vera; you don't mean it,” I said, pushing her brown hair back from her face with my right hand. She stopped and looked up at me.
"I will have to tie this around tightly to stop the bleeding,” she said beginning to tightly wrap bandage around my arm.
Just then Sitione entered the back. “We are en route to Altid. There are no ships following us, as far as I could tell on radar. For now,” he said with his face red and obviously anxious and nervous.
"Thank you, Sitione,” I said to him.
"It doesn't make sense. We have had our meetings in the underground passage for a month now. Why now? Why did they find us now?” he asked.
"Perhaps Jin betrayed us,” I said, look
ing at Vera. I didn't want to admit to myself that she had carelessly been yelling at me in the underground passage. Even if we were not having a secret meeting, the fact that she was yelling where someone could hear a human female yelling would cause many to come look at the source. Then to find her with me alone was very careless. She knew this, but she had lost all control of her emotions at that moment, so I blamed it on Jin instead.
"Yes, that is possible. Now our plans are ruined. We cannot go to the High Council and plead your case to take Cyro’s seat now. He will get to them first. We will be exiled, and we are fugitives. We came so close; all of it is now destroyed,” he said to me.
"You have plans to do what exactly?” Vera asked as she tied the last bandage tightly around my arm and anger.
"Does she know?” Sitione asked looking at me.
"No, she does not.”
"What is going on here?!” she shouted as she got up from her knees and stared at me. “Tell me the truth this time."
"I have never lied to you, Vera,” I said to her. “I have kept a secret from you, but it was my secret to keep. I kept it from you to keep you out of danger. Meeting with me the way we had been was already very dangerous for both of us, and I did not want to add to that danger by telling you what we had been up to,” I said to her.
"I knew it! You have been using me! Your entire plan to overthrow Cyro has included me! You mated with me in order to take Cyro’s place! I trusted you! How could you do this? You lied about my husband! And now I have abandoned him! How will I ever get back to him?”
"Your husband is not alive! I don't know what Cyro has told yo, but he is lying. I am not the one lying to you," I said to her.
"He's telling the truth, Vera. Your husband never made it to Seeduon. I was there. I was there when Cyro took you from Earth. I was on the ship. He released your husband into space without protection. I am sorry to tell you this, but it is the truth. I will never forget what he said before his death, ‘Vera, remember Pamplona,’” Sitione added in.
She stopped and looked at him with shock on her face. I knew it was hard for her. For whatever reason, she had developed hope that her husband was alive and now Sitione had just taken that away from her. It was like being told again that he was dead. She cried hard.
"Why would I believe you? You are working with him!” she pointed at me. “You are all just using me in your political games to gain control, to have power. You will no longer use me! You are a sick alien! Never talk to me again!” she shouted as she angrily moved out of the back of the ship to the front.
Sitione looked at me confused, “What is going on here? Is there something you're not telling me? You have been mating with Vera?”
I looked at him with a bit of guilt and shame on my face. I knew that it was wrong to do so. It was not the honorable thing to do, and yet I had done it and enjoyed it. I had indulged in her company, and it was reckless to do so.
"It is not what she says, Sitione. I did not use her as part of the plan to overthrow Cyro. It just sort of happened that way. It all started because I knew that Cyro was lying to her. He had told her that her husband was still alive and that if she would willingly mate with him, then she would be able to see her husband again, and Cyro would not kill him. I stood by as long as I could with this injustice. It is not the Corillion way, what Cyro was doing to this human female. So eventually I told her that her husband was dead, I told her the truth. She went into deep sorrow and grief and found comfort in me. Before long, it turned into a friendship, and then after that, something more, and yes, I have mated with her," I said.
"Truo, this is very dangerous indeed. What if she is with offspring? What if she is with Cyro’s offspring? That is the future leader of the Seeduon asteroid tribe of Corillion. What then?” Sitione asked.
"She is with offspring. Cyro has not been able to impregnate her. She has not been with him for almost 2 weeks or more,” I said to him.
“Then it is yours?” he asked.
“I believe so. I only just found out myself, and Cyro overheard her say she was with offspring right before she got on this ship,” I said.
“Oh shit. Then he will hunt us. He will think that offspring is his and he will hunt us. This is bad, very bad,” Sitione said.
“I will protect Vera and my offspring with my life,” I said.
“She hates you,” Sitione said.
“I will speak with her. Keep watch on the radar for Cyro and get ready to send a message to the High Council. We must be heard. Running only makes us look criminal,” I said as I walked out of the back to find Vera. I found her sitting in the front of the ship looking out at the stars creating light strings as they passed us in hyperspeed.
“It is so beautiful. I never thought I would see anything so beautiful,” she said looking at it.
“Is it true?” I asked her. She looked up at me and said nothing, so I continued. “You are with offspring? How?”
“You know how. You were there,” she said.
“So it is mine?” I grinned.
“I was not with child before I lay with you. I am with child now after laying with you,” she said annoyed.
“And you have not been with Cyro again since you and I have been together?” I asked.
“No. He has not touched me. I am positive that it is yours,” she said.
I grinned a very big smile. “This makes me very happy.”
“Why? So that you can now use me AND the child to claim your stupid throne?” she said in anger.
“No, that is not what I meant,” I said to her.
“Then what?” she said.
“I meant that I am happy that the human female I am in love with is carrying my offspring. I am glad that the human female I am in love with is no longer in the hands of Cyro; he is dangerous,” I said.
Chapter 11
VERA RODANTHEE
I went from being the captive of one Corillion warrior to another. There was no escaping this damn Corillion world. I had very little time to think when Truo held his hand out to me asking me to join him on the spaceship. I had recklessly blurted out my secret, that I was pregnant. What was worse was that Cyro was there to hear it. It was such a mess.
Now I found myself in the spaceship with Truo, whom I still did not know if I could trust. I had really thought that perhaps Marcus was alive because of what Cyro had said to me: remember Pamplona. But now Sitione had said the same thing to me. He had said that those were my husband's last words.
That would be why Cyro knew what to say to me. It was a message to me from my husband, but not a message that he told Cyro while in a prison cell at the fortress. It had been something that he had said out loud before they killed him. It broke my heart to hear it again from Sitione. I did not want to think of my husband in death. But now I knew that Cyro had lied to me. This meant that Truo had been telling me the truth all along, but I was so angry with him that I could not admit it to him.
So as he sat with me while the stars passed by at the speed of light, confessing his love for me, I wanted to be angry with him. I was not yet happy about the brash decision that I had made by jumping in the spaceship with him, but he was right. It was worse to stay on the asteroid with Cyro. I hated Cyro. My feelings for Truo, however, were more complex. I wanted to believe, everything he said about being happy that I was carrying his offspring, but I could not.
"I want to believe you, Truo, but do you see why I cannot? Do you?” I said to him.
"Yes, I do.”
I looked at his brown eyes, full of kindness, the eyes that so easily fooled me. “You were planning this entire coup to overthrow Cyro. You did this in secret and told me nothing of it. The room that I thought was our special place was actually your meeting place for planning a revolution. Do you see why I cannot trust you because of this?”
"Yes, I do,” he said again.
"It makes it look like I was part of your plan. You even took me to the same room where you were putting on your stupid meetings. Was I
a part of your plan all along?” I asked him.
"No, you were not," he said calmly. He was answering all of my questions very calmly and agreeing with me. It was infuriating. I wanted to yell at him and for him to yell back at me. He was being too understanding.
"You are making this very difficult!” I shouted at him.
"I am sorry. I don't want to make this any more difficult than it has been for you. I am very sorry for all of it. You must know that I was drawn to you because I could see your pain. I wanted to rescue you from Cyro. I did not mean for it to go as far as it did. But you enchanted me,” he said with a gorgeous smile.
I groaned in frustration, “Stop agreeing with me! I want to be mad at you! I don't want to trust you,” I said.
