by Celeste Raye
His eyes flashed. A smile, so evil and vicious that it took her breath away, lifted his mouth. He looked like a complete stranger now, and she took yet another step back, knowing that he would pursue her if she tried to run. His hands were so much closer to his weapons than hers were to the ones she wore. She might have a chance to get off a shot, but not before he got off one of his own.
He said, “You were the easiest one to convince. I already had your loyalty. All it took to buy you was to elevate you from the tunnels to the training grounds for the Capo. It cost me nothing but a few words to own you.”
She had to buy some time. He was going to kill her. She knew it. She heard faint noises from downstairs and hope lifted her spirits, but not for long. That might be his reinforcements, come to aid and assist him in murdering her, and whoever else might be left in the house.
She had time to reassess the situation however when he paused for a second, a slight frown marring his face as he too heard those voices and footsteps below. That he was obviously not expecting someone made her feel better about whoever was down there not being an ally of his, but then again, they may not be allies of hers either. They could be Federation officers ready to kill anyone who moved.
Her gaze flicked back to his face to see that he had come forward yet again. She had missed her window of opportunity to draw fire upon him. His attention was focused back on her again.
Jessica knew, deep down in her heart, that part of what kept her weapons sheathed was a vast sense of loyalty to this man. He had indeed taken her from a life that had been far beyond awful and placed her in the hallowed above-ground life. She knew, with every fiber of her being that the life she had had up there, in the sunlight and air, would have been completely beyond her otherwise.
She owed him her life, but was she willing to let him take it from her?
Hell no.
She had to placate him. She held her hands up, her empty palms showing. “So you own me. I don’t mind that. I have never minded that. I have always known it.”
She had known it. Deep down in her soul and heart where it counted the most, she had known that he had played upon the loyalty that she felt for him and used it to take her into the resistance. It had not taken much convincing though. Every single day of her life she had seen the injustices that he had sworn had to end, and she had wanted them to end as well.
He said, “You I am going to regret having to kill.”
She managed to get out the words, “Then don’t kill me.”
His face contorted. “I don’t want to. I always loved you. Even after you no longer loved me, I still loved you. I did everything I could to get you off this planet, and what did you do? You opened your mind just enough to get yourself wiped and put on a slaver ship.”
Her breath hitched in and out of her throat. “What are you talking about? I was betrayed, and I was captured. You know that. They were trying to mine my brain and memories for any hint of who the resistance leader was, but they couldn’t find it. They couldn’t find any of the information that you gave me. That’s why they put me on that slaver ship.”
He shouted, “I had planned for you to be betrayed! You were supposed to hold out from interrogation long enough to be shipped off to one of the penal planets, where you could have been rescued. But no. You had to come back here and start a war between those who live above and those who live below and wreck my plans.”
He drew his weapon. He kept it steady and aimed right at her heart. Jessica gathered up every bit of her dignity and courage as she spotted a movement near the door of the study. “It is you, isn’t it? You are the Federation traitor who wishes to take over the entire universe.”
Yori said, “I have a plan. It can be done. There must be one ruler, not all of these delegations and planets with other rulers and all of this constant back and forth and checks and balances that only make certain that some are privileged while most starve. There must be one ruler and one way of doing things.”
“And why must you kill me?” That question burst from her lips before she could stop it.
He said, “Because you are my one weakness.”
Talon said, “Mine too. Put the weapon down, or I will blow your head right off your shoulders.”
Yori’s face didn’t change. His smile turned bitter. “I always knew you’d be the one to betray me, Jessica.”
Talon’s weapon settled right on Yori’s temple. He said, “You had to have heard us downstairs. What betrayed you, you idiot, is talking too much. Let that be a lesson to you: if you’re going to hold somebody and kill them, do it. Don’t try to talk them to death.”
Jessica’s eyes flickered downward. Yori’s smile got even wider and far more evil. That was when she understood.
She screamed, “It isn’t him! He’s not the Federation traitor! And he’s wearing a kill pack! Run! For God’s sake, run!”
Yori’s hands dropped to his waist. He had been buying time; this whole time he had been holding her there because he was buying time, but for whom and what and why?
Those questions were blown away by the force of the blast.
Memories ran through her mind. Her life flashed and pulsed. Her mother, stooped and tired. The dim and swaying illuminator bulb that had been all they could afford in their one-room tenement. The dark corners that always held shadows where she went to cry quietly on nights there was no food.
Her father, coming home, his injury severe. The shouting between him and her mother. Her mother’s voice, “She’s going to starve to death anyway. The shortages are driving the cost of a loaf to heights we can’t afford if you don’t work.”
“We have to pawn her…”
The memories collided and spun. The pawnshop dealer saying she could be sold for pleasure training, if her father wanted a larger pawn.
Her father, looking at her upturned face. His lips twisting away in disgust and fear as the shopkeeper said, “She’d eat well, anyway.”
Had he said no to her going to a pleasure training camp just because he was angry that she would eat and they likely wouldn’t?
Everything spun again, and she was running form the rats in the tunnels, dragging Yori along with her. Then she was on the training field for her tryout, her whole body rigid with fear. Not fear of the large and vicious opponent that the Capo who had caught her above had set upon her out of a need for revenge for having his power thwarted either, but a fear of failing that tryout and being sent back below to die of starvation and exhaustion and without ever knowing what it felt like to live above.
She was sneaking through the below, her hands filled with stolen nutro-loafs, the nutrient-rich and dense loafs sold to the below because real food—fruit and bread and cheese and meat and potatoes—were only allowed to those above. The stolen loaves had been atop a crate of potatoes and onions and carrots.
The faces of the hungry peering at her as she slipped by, tucking potatoes into hands eagerly outstretched and loaves into shaking ones. Making love to Yori, his building memory boxes within her mind to help hold all of their secrets.
Talon.
Talon and everything she had ever known with him.
Her eyes fluttered open.
She was covered in gore and blood. Her fingers slid on the floor, and she had to crawl, she could not stand. There was a long ringing in her ears, and her head ached furiously. Her stomach rolled as she crawled past what was left of Yori.
Talon?
Where was he?
She did not know, and she could not see him either. Her knees finally took her upward but not upright. She swayed, her eyes blinking as she tried to focus. Her feet found the floor, and she leveled herself up, her eyes blinking.
Caleb and Harlon rushed in. They were shouting at her, but she could not understand what they were saying. Her lips moved. They formed Talon’s name. Harlon ran to one side of the room. She staggered behind him, her arms outstretched. Her mouth hung open, and her feet took shambling steps that landed her near his limp and unmo
ving body.
Tears washed down her face, and she found herself on her knees again. Her hands rolled his body toward her. His eyes were closed, and blood was spilling from his scalp. She gathered his body into her arms and wept her tears down upon his face.
She shouted, “Oh, don’t you die on me now!”
Her words choked off as his eyes opened. He said, “I told you I’d come back.”
A sharp laugh burst from her mouth even as tears ran down her face. “You did. I love you.”
“I love you.” His fingers rose. “Good thing I got behind that blast just far enough not to die, I guess. Since you’d probably kill me yourself if I hadn’t.”
Harlon spoke, “We have to get moving.”
Jessica looked up at them. Tears kept running down her face. “Why did he do it? Why?”
“I think he did it so they couldn’t interrogate him,” Talon said as he sat up. “The Federation, I mean. The ones who are not traitors have to know what is happening here now. The plot’s been uncovered. Whoever he was loyal to, he was loyal to a fault.”
Jessica stood. She said, “We have to go help these people here.”
Talon managed to stand. He said, in a weary voice. “I need a vaca-cycle.”
Jessica hugged him. His body rested against hers, and she gulped out, “When we are done here, we are taking the longest vaca-cycle ever known.”
He whispered, “I am going to hold you to that one.”
Then they drew their weapons and headed out of the house.
Chapter 17
Old Earth’s inhabitants stood on the rubble-strewn streets, their faces turned to the raised platform where the Federation delegation stood. Jessica stood beside Talon, who had a new scar on his face and his arm in a sling from a battle just two days before. He looked tired, and she was tired too.
The Gorlites were dead, eradicated from the world.
Yori’s plot had been exposed, but not the traitor, and now the differences between above and below grounders were nullified. None of them had much. The ones who had lived below had come above and refused to go back down, and the remaining above grounders either lacked the will or the energy to fight that battle as well as the battle for the planet.
The head of the Federation delegation stepped forward. He spoke in a long smooth voice. “I know you are all angry and feel as if we failed you. We did. We trusted those we left in charge, and they failed you too.”
The crowd muttered and shifted. Someone yelled, “We need food!”
“Water!”
“Our houses are destroyed, and we have no hydropower or solar either! We are at the mercy of the elements and the enemies who might come to fight us now while we are still so weakened!”
The cries went up all around them. The federation leader held up his hands. “We have brought plenty. You will have those things. We will send in many troops to help you rebuild and to help restore order. We will now be vigilant to the traitor who sought to replace our benevolent rule…”
Talon’s elbow dug into her side. Jessica gave him a stern look. Now was not the time to argue the Federation’s kindness or interference. The people on Old Earth would die without some kind of assistance, and they both knew it.
“He won, in the end. Maybe not in the way he meant to, but he did. He won what he wanted for these people.”
Talons words went into her ear, and she nodded. He was right. No matter what, the old order would never rise again. It would not because those who had lived below had fought for that planet with everything that they had had in them. They had lost a great number of people from below in that war against the Gorlites and the treacherous federation officers, none of whom had yet admitted who the person or persons behind the Gorlites take-over of the planet were.
A few nights before, a few proud and biased above grounders had tendered their opinion that as soon as things were set to rights, they would begin the task of putting the below grounders back below.
They had been brutally killed by a very angry mob, and it had not been just below grounders in that mob either.
Things had reached a tipping point, where nobody could ignore the horrors anymore and have a good conscience, and if there was anyone else who felt that that caste system was still fair and necessary, that very public execution had been enough to make sure that they never spoke up on the subject.
It was awful, all of it: that things had ever gotten that bad to start with and that it had taken so much to bring it down.
That there was still a war going on within the Federation and more wars waging throughout the universe.
The Gorlites were gone, yes, but there were plenty of terrible races and beings out there, and evil always had a way of planting itself in whatever soil it could find.
Talon’s fingers moved under her elbow. He drew her away from the crowd and toward the docking station. She went quietly.
Talon had somehow managed to demand a ship, and the Federation, in a show of grudging gratitude, had given it to him. The crew waited, and soon they would be on their way to Revant Two.
Harlon and the others were already aboard. Talon said, “Caleb, take the ship home, please.”
Caleb, also battle-scarred, nodded happily. “Sure thing, boss.”
Talon turned to Jessica; “I think I need to see you in my quarters. Immediately.”
Her lips curved into a wicked smile. “Lead the way.”
The End.
About the Author
Thank you for reading! I truly hope you enjoyed my book. I am a passionate writer that is OBESSED with Sci Fi Alien Romance. I have been writing since I was a little kid and never looked back! I look forward to interacting with all of you and bringing you new hot and steamy Sci Fi Alien Romance books.
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