28. CHAPTER 28

Why does it always have to be him that does something insane?! I would rather we lose the damn ship than for him to take this type of risk! My brain worked overtime to think of what I could do to help, and the only thing I could think of was the possibility of Connor still being onboard the ship.

I ran back to the mobile home used for housing for the colony, and sure enough, Lorvian"s comms device was on the night table.

"Connor!" I yelled louder than I needed to. "Connor! Come in? Are you onboard the ship?!" I waited for a moment before speaking again. "Connor! Come in!"

"I am here, and so is Tavi. I"m on my way to engineering. There are seventeen Travols onboard with her. She let them aboard."

So, it was her! I scoffed. I knew I should have just told Lorvian I didn"t trust her. "You have to stop them! Lorvian just jumped onboard; he should be in the cargo bay."

He seemed to hesitate. "But I cannot injure organics directly. It is against Geneva Conventions protocol 846."

"Never mind that! Lorvian will be in there alone! Can"t you do something?!"

"I am sorry, he will have to take back the ship alone... unless..."

"What?!" I said, desperate for any way to help Lorvian. I hated feeling so useless.

"There should be an AI. core in the administration building, the one Lorvian chose as his main office."

"Yes, I know it. On my way!" I had no idea what his plan was, but I was on it. It didn"t take long to get to the admin building across the colony. By this time, the ship had long since taken off. "Okay, I"m inside, but where do I go?" My breathing was labored, and sweat rolled down my body. This sun was murder.

"From the entrance doors, take two rights; down the hall should lead you there."

I pulled at the door to no avail.

"Try security code 4609."

The harsh beep threw me off, and the door was no closer to opening. "Shit, it"s not working!"

"Caspian?" The woman with the red hair stood behind me, Fran. I had no idea how long she was there watching me, and I felt like a little kid caught with his hand in the cookie jar. "I saw you run in here like a bat out of hell! Why did your ship take off so soon?"

I scrambled to come up with something, but my damn brain just froze.

"Why are you trying to get into the AI core?"

"Her ID card should work."

"I need you! Or your card. I need to help take back my ship!" I turned to her, hoping she would give in and just give me her card.

"Why the hell do you need our AI core for that? I think you should leave." She pointed at the door, done with my shit.

She grabbed me and yanked me down the hall toward the doors, and when we passed the front desk, I grabbed a small trophy on top and swung it fast, knocking her upside the head. I was hoping just to knock her out like I"ve seen so many times in the movies, but instead, she released me and turned to face me before reaching for me again. I hit her, causing her to slump over on the floor. I snatched the ID card from the set of keys hanging off her belt and ran back down the hall, pressing the card against the black bar, which read off its information. The doors whooshed open.

"I"m in!"

"Good. Now go to the large terminal in the back and allow me remote access. My code is Alpha T 4946720 Charlie."

"Okay, got it?"

I waited with bated breath, taking in the massive room"s pearl-like color and the large coiling structure in the center, which almost resembled a DNA cell or whatever it"s called—a helix? The place smelled like the soft burn of a heated machine. The whirring ceased, and the room went dark.

"Thank you."

"Now, can you do something?"

"Yes."

I ran from the room, and when I reached the lobby, Fran was gone, probably on her way to tell Derek what I had done or maybe to gather the small security force they had left. I didn"t enjoy seeing the handprint of blood on the floor; I hoped I didn"t hurt her too badly, but Lorvian was my number one concern.

Making it to the landing pad, Cormac was sitting on a crate nursing his wounded head.

"Damn. That bitch." He groaned. "Now I"m gonna have a bitch of a headache."

"At least you"re alive."

"Yeah, but... fuck, she took the ship!"

"Don"t worry, Lorvian and Connor are getting it back."

He scoffed. "Yeah, what good is an AI going to do? There had to have been twenty or thirty of them."

"Yeah, going up against a commander who kicked their asses before and a super-intelligent AI with inhuman reflexes."

"Yeah, that can"t kill them." He said, not sounding all that convinced.

Some human guards stood not too far from the landing pad. The only thing keeping them from coming at me was their fear of the soldiers who blocked the way. I didn"t see Fran or Derek anywhere, and for now, I saw it as a good sign.

The ship approached fast to the landing pad.

"I see the ship!"

"Please clear the landing pad." Connor came back on the comms, and we moved away as fast as possible.

"Connor..."

"Lorvian is safe."

"And Tavi?" I asked, not at all worried about her; I just wanted to know if they got her or not.

"Alive."

I wasn"t sure if that was a good idea.

Lorvian gripped Tavi and tossed her at his soldiers once they landed and the doors opened. He was sweaty, but other than that, he looked unharmed.

"You should work harder on your security; I almost got away," Tavi smirked as she cooed.

"Shut up!" One soldier ordered.

"I want her in chains!" Lorvian demanded.

"Yes, sir."

He then pointed at the men and women who were carted off the ship. "And line up those Travol soldiers in the courtyard so everyone, both human and Travol, can see."

"Yes, sir."

The hairs on my neck stood up as the ones who aided Tavi were lined up along the courtyard—around seventeen in total. The others were carried off and were either unconscious or worse. The Travols were getting rowdy as they questioned the motivation behind his actions. I stood near Cormac, who sat away from the spectacle. I didn"t want to be near Lorvian when he was like this, and I didn"t think I could say or do anything to stop him.

"What"s going to happen?" I asked Cormac, hoping to hear something other than what I feared.

"Looks obvious to me. Either they give them a public scolding, or we"re about to witness an execution."

"Damn." Yep, it was just as I feared.

Lorvian paced in front of the kneeling soldiers. Fran, the woman across the way, stared daggers at me, and I did everything I could to avoid her gaze. Derek was beside her, too, but he kept his eyes on the fallen soldiers and Lorvian as he walked by.

"I need to let you all know and understand where you are and who you are dealing with." Lorvian began his small speech once the crowd fell into a hush. "You are in my domain. Whether you came here unwillingly or in ignorance, you had better accept that you are on my property. Now, I come as a friend, but I can also become your worst nightmare. If you want to leave, then leave. I won"t hold anyone but your Travol leader hostage. But I will not allow you to take my willingness to speak to you as a sign of weakness. As for you humans, never make the mistake of siding with the losing side again."

He pulled out a blaster and fired on each of the soldiers.

I couldn"t take it. Holding my mouth to keep from vomiting right then and there, I ran for one of the enclosures to catch my breath.

A shiver ran up my skin, and I knew someone; no, two people were heading this way. It was Derek and Fran who found me inside the hydroponics greenhouse. It seemed like the place was untouched by the fighting, which was good. I could smell the strong scent of rosemary and lavender. The colorful peppers were ripened, and for the first time, I felt like I was at home back in my father"s garden.

"What the hell are you hiding for?" Fran scoffed the moment she entered the room. "You brought them here! You—"

"Fran, there"s nothing we can do about that now," Derek said, trying to calm her.

"He hit me and shut down our AI Core, unshackling thousands of AI!" She rounded on him, and I could see the small spot of blood on the bandage on her head.

Don"t get me wrong here. I wasn"t expecting to walk away from this unscathed. The consequences were obvious when I hit her, but I didn"t care. "I needed to save Lorvian."

"Yeah, you needed to save a monster who just finished executing people in cold blood." Fran wiped her tears away and took a deep breath.

"The AI still seems to follow orders, and they are working. I say we worry about these aliens first." Derek rubbed her shoulder.

I was glad I could hold myself together, but this confrontation wasn"t over yet. But there was no use in crying about it. I knew I would be back in Lorvian"s arms soon, and I knew he would kill anyone who would ever hurt me or his child.

"You"re right as always." Fran composed herself. "Earth needs to know what is going on so it isn"t blindsided."

"If they don"t know already." I scoffed.

"What do you mean by that?" Derek asked, concerned.

"Connor, the droid on my ship, was a part of the Alpha Team, the first to come here to build the colony. They were attacked, and they sent two back to Earth at FTL speed to report on what happened. This was four years ago. I think whoever is in charge of this Outer Worlds bullshit knew about these aliens but sent us here, anyway."

"Why?!" Derek exclaimed. "C"mon, Caspian? What sense would that even make?"

"Even if the droids failed to reach Earth, they would have reported it all through the AI core that Outer Worlds has access to."

"Fuck! Why didn"t I think of it?" Derek muttered. "They designed the AI to send periodic reports back to Earth. The AI core is separate from the comms. So why didn"t the AI send reports back to Earth when the first aliens arrived here and took us hostage or even when we crashed-landed in our pods after the attack on the Ignis?"

"Then it"s probably a good thing I destroyed the AI core," I said, hoping to find some good out of this, and I wanted to soften the blow of my crime.

"What does his man want from these so-called talks?" Fran said, rolling her eyes, most likely at my statement. "It doesn"t seem as though he is willing to play nice."

"The Valisian are dying out," I explained, ignoring her gesture. "Most of them are barren. They"ve relied on the Travol to give birth to their children. That"s why the Travol are fighting them." I breathed deeply. "But it seems to be wonky at best. He wants nothing more than to have a child with me, and they want to know what it means for them if we could."

"Ugh. They want us as some sort of baby farm?" Fran continued.

"That could be why they attacked but also why their attack wasn"t as harsh as it could have been. Xil, Lorvian"s brother, claimed he had a deal with humans to collect more of us. Maybe he spoke to the head of Outer Worlds or our government or something."

"That"s why we"re here?" Derek said in disbelief.

Fran chuckled, but it didn"t appear as if something amused her. "Look, I don"t mean any offense, actually I fucking do." She sneered and stepped closer, but she wasn"t in my face, and I was afraid of what I would do to her if she got in my face. "I know my man knows you, and for some reason, he seems to like ya, but everything I heard about you tells me you"re bad news. I just know it."

I"m bad news? What the hell was she talking about? "But I"m here to help!"

"I don"t fucking care." Fran spat. "We"ve been running this colony since our boots hit the ground, and we were just starting to feel like we were gaining some traction after the tragedy of the Ignis attack, and now we may have fallen into some sick fuck"s trap! And I just don"t have time to entertain your weird-looking ass right now!" Her voice raised, and I felt myself balling my hands into fists. "We talked about this before you proved a danger by unshackling our AI and hitting me if that brings you any solace. But we agreed that you should leave when these aliens hopefully leave. We want you to stay out of our way, stop trying to help us, just go the fuck away."

Derek gently pulled Fran back. "This is just as much for your own good as it is for ours. It"s just too much right now. Some colonists are planning on contacting their families on Earth, and we can"t stop them from doing that. They"ve already taken pictures and recordings of you. You know what would happen to you."

"They"re gonna throw me in a lab," I sighed. "What do you hope will happen during the talks?"

"It isn"t a good idea to tell you," Fran said, ending the conversation.

I walked past them back outside only to come face-to-face with Swarti, Lorvian"s second in command... or perhaps he was no longer that? I had no damn idea. Gods, this day was pure shit, and all I wanted to do was get back on the ship.

"Caspian, good, I found you. I need you to translate to your leaders. I don"t trust that other one entirely."

"They"re not my leaders."

"Either way, I need you to tell them that another of their kind will have to allow us to chip them for the talks."

Oh, look, they so happened to come out just in time, and honestly, I wanted to leave them to fiddle around for themselves. But it wasn"t Derek or Fran who was asking this of me; it was Swarti, maybe sent by Lorvian. I did as he asked me and, unfortunately, had to linger longer than I cared to.

"I don"t know about that," Derek sighed. The only other leader here is Fran, and well, I took the risk alone, so if anything happened to me, she would be left unscathed."

"Derek is right. That"s a huge risk, and no, you telling us it"s okay, isn"t enough to make us believe it."

Swarti looked at me, his face the perfect stamp of annoyance. "It will make the talks run more smoothly."

"Get the damn chip, "cause I"m not translating anything for you." I spat at Fran, unwilling to stand here while they prattle on with their doubts. I refuse to be their personal translator during this meeting when a damn chip would solve their problem. Who knows, maybe I changed because of the chip. Oh, how hilarious would that be if it was the chip"s fault? I would love to see one of them kick the other from the colony...

"Fine. I"ll get it." Fran huffed.

"Fran." Derek breathed. He stroked her belly…oh hells, did I really attack a pregnant woman?!

I boarded the ship about a half an hour later, I didn"t want to leave. As far as it concerned me, this ship was my home. Lorvian and Swarti were already in the conference room when I entered along with Derek. Swarti had a seat near Lorvian, who was at the head, and took the empty chair near Lorvian. A soldier escorted Daruuk into the room, and he sat at the side of the table. I could feel the tension already building up. Connor and Fran made their appearance known, with Fran picking at the scar at the back of her head.

"I"m not used to this stuff." Derek coughed. "And why is he here?" He gestured to Connor, who sat next to me.

"Shut up," I replied, not wanting him to go into the details of me unshackling the AI. And I just wanted him to shut up.

"I should have known you would do what you did. You were always soft on the machines while on the ship."

Oh God, he had to keep going.

"Machines? What are you talking about?" Swarti looked from him to me, his fine features furrowed.

"It"s nothing." Lorvian gestured, dismissing the matter. "Are we here to discuss our future arrangements, or are we here to play games and dawdle?"