by Maia Starr
"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, looking 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.
&nbs
p; “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.
"I can see why you do not trust me. But you must understand that what happened was a coincidence. I was not using you in my plans to overthrow Cyro. But I did hope that it would help you. I wanted to get you away from him. He is dangerous. He is not a good leader. What I do, I do for my warrior brothers, for the entire tribe. His leadership will lead to their extinction, for all of us on that asteroid Seeduon. It had nothing to do with you. But it was a pleasant surprise to be able to help you as much as I could."
I sighed. I sat in silence for a while as he stared at me. I had to admit that my situation was slightly better. I did not want to be with Cyro; I did not want to be anywhere near him. I would be devastated if I was carrying his offspring, especially now that I knew my husband was truly dead. It had been the only reason that I was going to allow Cyro to impregnate me. Now carrying the offspring of Truo, someone that I actually had feelings for, was a better situation. But could I love him? I cared for him deeply, but I still loved my husband.
"So what now?” I asked. “Cyro overheard me saying that I was pregnant. He will come after us; he will think that it is his. He is obsessed with me. He was up obsessed with impregnating me; there is no way that he will just let us go.”
"Leave that to me. I vow to you, Vera, to protect you and our child with my life. Cyro will not touch you ever again. I will defend you at all costs,” Truo said to me.
"I believe you," I said to him. He had already been stabbed protecting me from Cyro, so I had no reason to doubt.
"So what do we do next?” I asked.
"We send a message to the High Council telling our side of the story,” Sitione said as he entered the front of the ship.
"Yes, that is exactly what I am ready to do. Have you established communication?” Truo asked.
"We can record a message and send it. That is the only thing we can do at this speed,” Sitione answered.
"How can I help?” I asked standing up.
They both looked at me stunned at my offer to help.
"What can I do?” I said again.
"No, you should not be involved in this any more than you already are. This way if the High Council does not vote in our favor, we can say that we took you hostage and that you should be set free and not punished,” Truo said.
"Set free? Meaning I would be able to go back to Earth?” I asked.
"No, meaning you would be given back to Cyro,” Sitione said.
"No. I refuse. Let me help. I refuse to be given back to Cyro, and if showing that I am a part of this revolution will keep me from going back to him, then that is what I will do. Tell me what to do,” I said defiantly.
"She has spirit,” Sitione said to Truo.
"And so much more,” Truo said.
"But she has a point. Perhaps if in the message she says that Cyro could not impregnate her and that she carries your offspring and is willing to be tested as such, then it will prove that Cyro could not produce offspring and cannot be a leader. It will prove that the second in command was the one to produce the first alien-human hybrid heir,” Sitione said.
"You might have a point. But that is only if Vera wants to do that. I will not make her do anything that she does not want to,” Truo said.
"Yes, I want to do it,” I said, answering quickly without even thinking about it.
They both looked at each other and seemed to be full of hope. It made me feel good. I wanted to help. But most of all, I wanted to be involved in bringing down the alien warrior that had killed my husband. Vengeance would be mine after all.
A few minutes later, we all stood in front of a recording device, the three of us.
"Ready?” Sitione asked.
"Ready,” Truo and I both said at the same time.
"Began message,” Sitione said.
"High Council, I, Truo Seeduon, am contacting you to relay what has happened on the asteroid Seeduon. You may or may have not heard by now of the rift between Cyro and I. High Council, I had planned to come to you in a day or two to plead our case. I plead to take over leadership of the asteroid tribe Seeduon. Many, including myself, think that Cyro is an unjust leader. He is leading to the extinction of our tribe. It is time that I take his place.”
"High Council, it is true. It is also true that Cyro took a wife a month ago, as the High Council knows because of the trouble he caused. But in this month’s time, he has not produced offspring and has failed to impregnate the human female Vera that he took from Earth. She is here now to plead her case,” Sitione said.
"My name is Vera from Earth, and I am here to tell my story. Cyro was very cruel to me, and he was not able to impregnate me. Through Cyro’s cruelty and his murder of my husband, I found solace in another Corillion, a friend, Truo Seeduon. Over time, I became close, and I willingly mated with him. I am now pregnant with offspring, the offspring of Truo Seed
uon. I am ready to take any tests that are needed to prove that he is the rightful father and not Cyro,” I said.
"Thank you for this opportunity to send this message and plead our case. As you can see, we have support, and I have fathered offspring with the human female, and that is what is needed in a leader first and foremost to stop the extinction of a tribe. We humbly await your reply,” Truo said.
Sitione stopped the recording.
"Send it straight away before we are too far out of range,” Truo said to Sitione.
"Sending it now,” Sitione said as he turned toward the wall and began to push all kinds of buttons.