“Then allow me to speak with the council and return to Diogel; at present the Sacred does not will that we stop you, so there is no need to keep me here.”
“Nice of him, but I don’t need the agitation if he changes his mind.”
* * *
Travis saw that they had dismissed him and started his tirade with Wrexel once again.
Wrexel finally exploded with anger. “This man alone is reason enough for them all to be destroyed. They are unevolved buffoons, wasting my time with negotiations of the impending loss of their culture. What fucking culture?” His voice echoed around the room. “You’re a pathetic race of war-mongering, murdering destroyers of your own planet.”
“You.” He pointed at Revan. “You will be a guest on Earth for a few days, in a safely allocated area where you can clear your conscience of the ‘fate’ you have allowed. Mingle with these degenerates; see then if you still feel like they’re worth saving.”
“My council may worry about my disappearance,” Revan said.
Wrexel laughed. “You arrived here on your private transporter with no council directives being displayed for me to cower and obey. I am not a fool, Revan; it will be days before they look for you. My brother has given them assurances that they accepted without question and has advised you are on a week’s leave of absence on a personal mission of inquiry. Why else would I allow you on my ship? Did you honestly think I cared about your challenges? I needed you out of the way. By the time the Yimmyrd work out what we have done, we will be gone and after we have stripped Earth, the asteroid will be a welcome relief.”
Revan realized he had been outwitted and did not argue when the two guards indicated it was time to leave. He would have no trouble fighting off the Thromians but retaliation was not ordained.
He warned Travis again to be still, to accept his fate and execute his decisions wisely as the human visibly trembled with anger and dismay.
He is saving Earth only to placate his brother, who fears a witch’s curse; do not anger Wrexel. He has no compassion or concern for Earth.
Revan followed the guards out the door and Travis called after him, but the guards who remained behind told him to sit down and be quiet. Wrexel stood to the side and worked furiously on his wrist monitor, ignoring all in the room, his gaze murderous.
As Revan exited the room, he walked into Inndra and a human female who stood pale and confused at his side.
* * *
The new alien she saw before her enthralled Amber. He had pale skin and his naturally lined eyes reminded her of a bird, keen, rimmed, and piercingly blue. His features were hawkish but appealing and his dark hair was interrupted by two thick silver streaks that ran from his temple. He was young, however, clothed in an open robe of silvery gray. As he moved, a glowing shadow of himself followed, flowing from him in a second’s delay as if he had blue ghostly host attached to him. He equaled the Thromians in height but wasn’t as largely built; he still dominated the room with his otherworldly presence. His movements were graceful, his body lithe and athletic, and he exuded power that vibrated with intensity.
“You may not have access to my mind.” Inndra interrupted her stare.
He laughed at Inndra. “Now there’s a surprise.”
Two Thromians loitered to his left and right and indicated without touching him that he should move forward. They looked reticent and uncomfortable in his presence. He moved toward her with a grace that made him appear as if he floated. When he stood before her, the shadow seemed to fade away. He resonated kindness and his presence gave her a deep feeling of peace.
“I am a Yimmyrd,” he told her and lifted one hand that she instinctively touched with her own.
“I am Amber,” she whispered, feeling light and at ease.
The words he spoke next resounded in her head. Amber, submit to the Thromians, accept their terms; the Yimmyrd will protect you in the new colony.
She touched her temple, awed by his ability to interject his thoughts directly into her mind. So this was a Yimmyrd: the celestial beings that entranced her father and that owned and controlled Diogel. He wasn’t quite the angel she had imagined, but as he moved away and his shadow of self vibrated ethereally, his gaze aglow, she decided there could not be a better depiction of a heavenly being.
He followed the Thromian guards, who still kept a respectful distance, and he looked unafraid and regal at their side.
* * *
Inndra watched him depart and then his eyes widened when Wrexel stormed past, his eyes glazed with fury. He looked at Amber in surprise and bristled with more anger.
“We have issues of urgency we need to discuss.” Wrexel indicated that Inndra was to follow. “We will come back and deal with the humans later.”
He continued his brisk and angry walk away.
Amber saw Travis with the guards and raced into the room with a cry of confusion as he rose and took her into his arms.
Inndra sighed heavily as the guards raised their brows, waiting for his instructions.
He could see their hands upon their skeths, ready to silence the humans permanently.
God, this was a nightmare.
A mission with Wrexel was always complicated.
If he hadn’t been obsessed with the female, there would have been fewer meetings, no chance for Travis to escape or feel welcome enough to wander around the ship.
He ran his hands over his braids as he heard Amber begging Travis to explain what was going on.
“Oh my God, Amber,” Travis replied. “We’ve been horribly misled.”
As Travis relayed the details of his findings to Amber, Inndra took a moment to send a message to Wrexel.
What the fuck must I do with the humans?
He received a directive and read his wrist monitor.
Get rid of the male and leave the female for me.
Inndra responded immediately.
No.
* * *
Wrexel’s mission was armed forces. The extraction of what they needed from Earth and the resettlement remained under Shihlo’s orders. He waited for Travis to finish his last explanation while Amber cried and then interrupted them after ordering the guards to wait outside.
“You should not have heard that conversation, but it changes nothing. Your planet is doomed. It's all about timing.”
Travis shook his head. “You could destroy the asteroid now. The future is uncertain. Who knows how our planet will evolve?”
Inndra disagreed. “This is irrelevant to Throm; we need these resources for our wellbeing. The numbers agreed upon will stand. Wrexel will not go back on our promise… to his brother Shihlo,” he added. “He is neither merciful nor generous and you would do well to remember this, Travis.”
“If we had… if you could… give us extra time… maybe help us save more of our people,” Amber pleaded with Inndra.
Travis grasped her arm and made her jump.
“Don’t bargain for that, Amber!” Travis stated angrily. “We deserve the right to live and evolve as we choose; this is not the time for you to speak.”
“You will evolve straight into an asteroid which is less than two weeks away,” Inndra warned him, bristling at his treatment of the female who showed more sense.
“Equipped with this knowledge, we would do things differently on Earth.” Travis could see himself leading humanity to change, and this excited him.
Inndra had a decision to make.
He could get rid of the couple before him, but he didn’t want to; he fought and killed in war, and they were not at war with the humans.
Wrexel obviously didn’t care about the outcome either way, although he seemed interested in the woman for less than moral reasons.
“I am letting you go when it is probably in my best interests to silence you and I am doing this because I believe you are wise enough to take what you are offered without a fight. Shihlo wants a proper evacuation and I know taking you away at this time would hamper that.”
He frowned
as if the decision to leave them alive was difficult.
“Go,” he said, making his choice. “But be astute with what you reveal to your people, for it will change nothing.”
As they returned to Earth, Amber listened to Travis’s full story again.
* * *
Revan had taken the time to send him additional information with his mind, about how Shihlo was the only reason they were given any chance of life at all. How the Thromians had planned to destroy Earth in its entirety. Their continued existence based solely on a witch’s divination. When she urged Travis to consider this and how both Revan and Inndra warned him to submit, he became angry.
“Seriously, Amber, they’re all a little crazy… a witch… godly beings…” He snorted. “I have seen no evidence of sorcery and the idea of God telling them what to do is ridiculous.”
“Travis, even Throm claims the Creator is real; even Throm says sorcery is a real power. Why would you doubt them?”
“I need to focus on fact, Amber, not insane superstition. Please leave me to think!”
* * *
The following day, Travis ignored Amber’s warnings and urgings to obey the Yimmyrd and let the evacuations continue without trouble. He chose to share the knowledge with his peers. When they arrived for the next set of negotiations upon the Thromian ship, the meeting turned hostile as panic and urgency prevailed.
Trust was lost, and assurances were demanded.
If they were lied to about this, perhaps there was more hidden.
They wanted the Yimmyrd warrior to intervene in the discussions.
They were outraged that they had been fooled into believing they were doomed when they still had the right to years of intellectual growth between them and a cyclical fate.
They wanted time to evolve naturally
They wanted the decision of the Illohi guardians to destroy the asteroid upheld.
They wanted to be left in peace without further delay.
They wanted.
They wanted.
They wanted.
Wrexel disbanded the meeting and told them it was the last, ordering them off his ship. There would be no more discussions. The group stood in horror as he left the room, not sure what he meant. They stared at Inndra, who merely groaned and put his head in his hands.
Travis failed to mention to the senior leadership that Wrexel was helping them only because Shihlo demanded it. He refused to speak of what he called ‘mere superstition.’ He focused instead on the lies they were told.
How he had cleverly discovered this.
How he would be able to unite Earth.
Stories of a witch and a pledge were nonsense. A story he did not respect enough to bring to the table as part of the discussion. The leaders and he therefore believed Wrexel had been led by his morals to spare their lives and would continue to do so.
This was their biggest mistake.
They turned to Travis with shock when Wrexel left and he reacted without thinking – or, rather, his thinking was geared toward gaining everybody’s respect and confidence for a possible future role. He raced after Wrexel alone and followed him down the walkway to issue a direct threat.
“Stop, you murdering bastard; don’t forget Earth is still ours and we are not without our own power. We can rise up, band together, and make this very difficult for you.”
Wrexel turned and looked at him with a frown.
“Maybe our firepower and technology isn’t as advanced as yours but we can fight every ship that comes down here. You will have your hands full trying to preserve this planet if there is full-scale war and aggression taking place.”
The idea was madness, one that would never have been agreed to by the leaders who were not present in that hallway. However, the look of interest on Wrexel’s face spurred him on. Travis did not factor in his enemy’s persona, and the interest was misread.
Travis felt smug, for Wrexel appeared, albeit for a few seconds, like a man who stood to lose the healthy Earth resources that he desired and desperately needed.
Wrexel, however, did not view his threats with fear or concern.
His life’s work was all about war and tactics; dismantling their capability for force had been investigated on the day Throm had arrived. The weapons of mass destruction they possessed were archaic, and minor containment shields could lock them in place within minutes, removing their ability to fight.
Travis’s threat was in no way devastating to his cause.
The only hindrance to his plan was that Travis had ruined his chances of gaining Amber in his bed and since the entire Earth reallocation debacle had started, she had been Wrexel’s single interest in humanity. This idiotic man was all that stood in his way. Wrexel could have killed him, but he wanted to win Amber, not have a whimpering widow. He wanted to cultivate the longing he saw in her when they shared their only moment alone. He had many more planned until he could get her to leave the idiot in front of him. Now this was ruined! He had to come up with a new plan to seduce her, but first he needed to shut down the arrogant prick barking in his ear.
“Evacuations will cease,” he said. “Subtraction of the minerals will start within 24 hours. There will be no fourth colony.”
He left Travis standing alone.
Much later that evening, Wrexel sighed heavily when Inndra, his brother Shihlo’s chief representative, entered the room where he had been sitting quietly, thinking about his next steps to get Amber. Charm and seduction would not work now that she knew he was a despot. For a while the actual “getting” part had been set aside, and he had been lost in long moments of what he was going to do with her once he had her. He didn’t appreciate his thought process being interrupted.
He lowered and stabled his reflection of hunger before locking on Inndra.
“Your directive today to the humans was a ruse, a ploy to stop the Earthlings from giving us further grief?” he asked.
Wrexel gave a nod of agreement but Inndra remained ill at ease.
Wrexel was not predictable.
“Your brother will be highly aggrieved and will fly here himself if his request is not followed through.”
“Yes, I believe my brother would.” Wrexel could see Shihlo charging onboard, forever becoming a symbolic angel rescuer to the Earthlings with his long blond hair and pretty face. “We both know that proper evacuations are necessary,” Inndra added.
“Apparently.” Wrexel scowled; scoop and drop would have been much easier in the short term, but dealing with a planet of renegade and possibly criminal colonial humans would be a nightmare for Shihlo, who would follow the witch’s request and ensure that they were taken care of and protected for many years to come.
“I haven’t advised him of the threat you issued,” Inndra said. “He’s still reeling from your savage bombing of the Monarch’s ships.”
“Instead of reeling from the fact he was building an army to take on mine?” Wrexel was incredulous.
Inndra sighed. “Wrexel, we hold the majority. It grows every 45 days with the new moon and the allegiance sign-ups; soon the White party will equal the Monarch’s Red and he will never hold the monopoly again.”
Wrexel did not agree, but he did not wish for a debate. “I will honor my brother’s request, but the humans will no longer have a say in proceedings. I have grown tired of their idiocy and your complacent acceptance of their drivel.”
Inndra nodded. “The blueprint is in place and we will finish it as planned. To make sure your threat is taken seriously, I will return some of their kind. When they ask for another chance, I will give it to them, but without the reprisal of their ability to negotiate, thus speeding up our mission.”
“Agreed.”
Inndra appeared uncertain of his quick agreement but Wrexel turned his back on him, not wanting to encourage further questioning.
* * *
Wrexel returned to his planning and grimaced when Whyle entered shortly after.
He had put this out of his mind all evening
since the Yimmyrd left, but it hadn’t taken Whyle long to become suspicious that his sister was not on board that night.
“Where is Rix?” his cousin demanded.
Wrexel stifled a groan. It would not do for Whyle to be agitated; he was the main reason why they were hovering outside of Earth. His orchestrations would take the reserves they required from Earth and he needed him to focus.
“You are here as our chief scientist, Whyle; I do not need to reveal my military initiatives to you. Rix is a member of the Blue; she is on a mission.”
“She is my sister.” Whyle’s jaw clenched. “I demand to know what mission and where. She is not on any one of our ships.”
“Rix is safe upon Earth, keeping the Yimmyrd in custody.”
When Whyle looked set to argue, he added, “I thought removing her from… my vicinity for a while would be a good idea.”
Whyle wasn’t comfortable with the fact that she was incommunicado but Wrexel’s words made him flush. They both knew Rix was often an embarrassment.
“I realize Rix… has been difficult of late,” he said sadly.
Wrexel nodded innocently. When Whyle found out that Rix had crashed to Earth, he would be angry – even more so when he discovered Wrexel had ignored her attempts to communicate, dropping supplies to where she was stranded in the desert to keep her and the Yimmyrd out of his hair.
Whyle would get over it eventually when he found out, but for now Rix’s mental instability was the perfect way to get his cousin to back off.
Whyle accepted his excuse and returned to other business. “I need some more Earth scientists, horticulturalists, and other specialists; there are things upon this planet that only those who have lived there would understand. I have a list of a few hundred more people who must be evacuated and then we can leave.”
“A few hundred scientists?” Wrexel raised his brow. “I thought your abilities in science were legendary. Why would you require so many of the Earth’s specialists for what we are removing?”
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