29. CHAPTER 29

So, it has begun. Our little talk was to discuss the situation we"re all in and to find a solution that could work out for all of us. Or better put, I"m more interested in the solution that works out in my best interests. If others benefit, then I will have no complaints. The truth is, I found myself in the most peculiar predicament, and I needed assurances before I made my moves. I needed allies outside of the hegemony to deal with Regis, whom I would have to fight no matter what, and I wasn"t sure if I would have the support of my other siblings.

To hell with Swarti, my father"s mind was even more of a maze than his. If he knows what I am, then why name me his heir? Is this what he desires? A betrayal by his son? I laughed in my head about how I ended up doing just as he had instructed in our earlier discussion.

I was making peace with humans and Travols, and I was even thinking of other aliens I could bring into the fold. Oh, the irony of it all.

Daruuk stared daggers at me, and so did the red-haired human wench, who swiftly looked away once I glanced at her.

The tanned human male comforted her and whispered something in her ear.

Caspian sat quietly and patiently in the awkward silence, and then I looked at the machine, which seemed to be different somehow, but I couldn"t quite focus on how. He carried a glint in his eyes, something which seemed more aware. Perhaps the answer was in the conversation Caspian and the other had before, which he was quick to want shut down. Or perhaps it was nothing at all, and I was overthinking the matter. He, Connor, looks human after all. If Caspian hadn"t told me, I wouldn"t have been able to tell the difference between him and the human male sitting across the room.

"Unless my people are free and out from under the control of your kind, we have nothing to talk about." Daruuk cut through the silence. It had been a long time since I"d seen the man up close, his hair tied into braids and shaved at the sides, some sort of warrior"s cut. It seems he was always prepared for a battle. He still carried the scar I gave him along his jawline. Of course, he would be the first to run off at the mouth, believing himself to be the most wronged and, therefore, the most deserving in making this conversation all about him. Travols like him had a knack for viewing the most struggled as the more virtuous.

"Then you can go back into your cell because right now, no one is in such a position to give you what you ask for," I replied, shutting down his impossible demand. "And the last I checked, your planet is in the hands of your own kind."

"Yes, the ruling council who betrayed us!"

"They submitted because they were willing to do anything to get rid of your family. I wonder why?" I said, alluding to the atrocities committed by his family. "Could it be the young women kidnapped from poor families and turned into sexual slaves?"

"That"s your kind, long ear."

"And the children you forced to work in your factories, which infected them with deformities and disease. Or your food lotteries because half the planet was on the brink of starvation. Most of your freshwater had long been tainted, and what little was left was pumped directly into your palaces. Perhaps those are the reasons they handed us the keys so willingly. That and you killed off half of your own family, giving them no real options to turn to."

"Speaking of family," Daruuk said, cutting me off. "I want my sister released into my custody."

"You haven"t even been released yet."

Leave it to Swarti to be the level-headed one here. "We need to focus on informing the humans of what is going on and handling the repercussions of such an endeavor," he sighed. "You, Derek. How do you think your people will take the news that they are but one of many races here?"

"With fear but wonder and curiosity. We"ve always wondered if we were alone; this would be exciting news."

"If they don"t already know," I said, I might as well let the cat out of the bag, as my Caspian would say, and see what happens next. "There is a possibility that my brother Regis knew about your kind, and has known about you for quite some time."

"What?!" Swarti exclaimed, shocked by the revelation.

"Do you know about this?" I kept my attention on the human.

"I heard there"s a chance they sent us here to be captured." He swallowed hard. "But I only found this out a few hours ago."

I looked to Daruuk. "I want the truth. You worked with my brother Regis. Why arm these humans now when you were the one who attacked their colony ship? What game are you playing?"

"The only one I can play." Darruk scoffed. "Yeah, I worked with your brother because he promised me that when he became King he would restore my rule. He gave me the coordinates of the human vessel and told me to round up as many as I could to take to Qazi. I had no issues working with him until he made a deal with Feion to hand him a machine the humans brought with them. They wanted to replicate them into an army. I drew the line at my involvement with him and decided to visit these humans to prepare them to join my cause. Unfortunately, Regis had already gotten here before me…almost as if he knew exactly where these humans would be." he chuckled. "I knew you Valisians and your quest for power would destroy everything."

"Don"t lump me in the same category as him. I turned down Feion"s ridiculous offer, but it would seem as if Regis is out of control." But something didn"t quite add up.

"That is troubling," Swarti"s voice of concern cut through my thoughts. "How long has Regis known of humans and their machines and yet reported nothing to the hegemony."

"Four Earth years ago is when the first human vessel was attacked," I replied.

"Wait," Caspian"s soft voice filled the room. "Connor, you said when your supply ship was attacked, that the Valisians took one of the pods. What happened to the ship they arrived on? If they took our pod then they had to leave a ship."

I hated that I gasped, even slightly. "And how would these Valisians leave a new space-faring world that has never heard of the existence of other species? It would be impossible for Regis to have been on the human world and to have left it without alerting the humans to our existence. Unless he left on the human colony ship Ignis. Which is impossible as I"ve seen Regis in person prior to the attack."

"Then who landed on the human world?" Swarti sighed.

"Connor. Answer Caspian"s question."

"We salvaged it."

"Where?" Cormac asked. The first thing he"d said during this entire meeting. He had even stopped slouching.

"Beneath this settlement," Connor replied stone-faced.

The humans" collective gasp told me that none of them knew such a ship existed in their midst—no point in asking a pointless question.

"Then, after this meeting is over, I want to take a look at it," I said. "And Swarti, when you return to the Eber"luian, I want you to make a record of any missing Valisans and ships during that time."

"All this time, there was an alien ship under here?" Derek sighed, looking tired.

"Let"s move on," I said; the meeting must go on and we had other matters to attend to. "Usually, everyone wants something out of a discussion; otherwise, why have one?"

"You already know what I want," Daruuk said, unwilling to relent.

"Yes, you won"t stop telling me."

"I also want your head on a pike for hanging my brother."

"Well, that is off the table," I waved, dismissive of the matter. "Since we know what Daruuk wants, I"ll be forthcoming with what I want. Our race is dying, slowly but surely, this is hardly a secret anymore. A member of your species has undergone a mutation into a hybrid of our race, and that is precious to us. We want to know if this isn"t some lucky fluke."

"Is that why the others attacked us?" The human woman asked, looking from Caspian to myself.

"It is customary to announce our presence to new aliens we encounter regardless of their development. If you refused to respond, we would have attacked to get our point across. But Xil sent Zantos to attack this colony because of Caspian. He most likely wanted to get his hands on more humans."

"Where do we stand? Are we safe here?" The human called Derek replied.

"I will place this colony under my personal protection."

"For?"

"Enslavement," Daruuk chuckled. "And now you see his true colors. For all his judgment of me and mine, he would covet your men and women in the same manner!"

It was better to ignore him, or nothing will get done. "You will rebuild your colony with our help and resources and report home but omit encountering us. Make up a lie to ensure no more humans come here until it is safe. In exchange for all of this, you must spare a few colonists for testing."

Daruuk laughed and slapped his knee. "And there it is!"

"So, turn in our own people to be dissected in a lab like rats for my own safety?" The female sneered.

"I can"t promise they won"t be harmed. But they won"t be killed or maimed, Caspian had undergone our gene therapy treatment and as you can see, he is fine," I assured him. "This is the best deal you will get from us. There is no way your Earth can win a war against the hegemony, but you can be introduced into the wider galaxy more gently than most."

"There is another option," Daruuk said, leaning over like a creature on his shoulder. "You can fight; that is what I"ve chosen."

"Yes, and see how well it has ended for you."

Derek sighed. "We came here to settle on a new planet, to explore it and the galaxy. We have no resources to fight. But so many people have died, and you are now asking me to just hand you the remainder."

"There are a lot of you here. We don"t need all of you, just a few sacrifices. Conduct a census of your colony, and we will decide based on the report."

"Look at you," Daruuk chuckled, amused by the turn of events. "You can"t even help yourself. Even during a so-called peace talk, you can"t help but be a demanding ass!"

"We will get nowhere by being nice," Swarti interjected.

"If there is no reason for me to be here, then I would rather leave. This sounds more like a matter between you and the humans," Daruuk sneered.

"There is a reason for you to stay. An alliance."

"Ha! For what?" He scoffed. "To help you become King in the vague hope you will be benevolent?"

"Do you believe Regis can beat me?"

"Do you plan to fight your siblings?" Swarti asked. "Have you considered what we discussed?"

"I need to return home first and speak with my father, but no matter what I decide, I know a fight is inevitable," I answered, not wanting to mention what we spoke of before. I still wasn"t sure if I would betray my father. "Daruuk, your forces are down to a handful of men and women."

"I know. You"ve executed the rest." he sneered.

"They had betrayed you for your sister, anyway," I shot back. "Whether or not you like it, I am the only one who can put you on your throne. Your rebellion is officially over; be smart and realize it."

Daruuk shot up from his chair and marched out of the room.

"I guess our talks are over," I stood. "You know what I want and what I"m willing to give. I would like your answer once I return."

The human leaders stood, both shaken as they departed the room. The humans had nothing to fight with, at least not now, and they were still a looming threat from beyond, whether or not they saw themselves as such. I planned to have spies tapping into their comms and network systems the moment someone fixes them. I didn"t like the idea of one of our kind being on their homeworld, we had a knack for our resilience and taking over primitive species and Regis was getting his intel from somewhere, Earth was the most likely culprit.

"Swarti, place a spy on Daruuk and Tavi, and I want an envoy to remain here with the humans, a discreet one. See if we could buy any humans. I wish to speak with Tavi before I depart," I stopped before leaving the room. "And tell the crew they will receive my answer when I return from Ashan."

"Yes, sir," Swarti saluted.

Connor, Cormac, and Caspian followed behind as we left the ship for the colony again.

"Connor, show me this vessel that attacked you."

"It"s not far," he said, leading the way.

"As far as talks go, that wasn"t so bad," Caspian breathed in deep once the temperate air hit us.

"It"s hard to talk of anything when everyone mistrusts each other," I replied. "Are you worried about your people?"

"They"re not my people. Not anymore," he scoffed as he watched the two humans approach the small crowd gathering near the landing pad. "They don"t even want me here." He brushed his hood off and tucked his hair behind his smaller, pointed ear. "I have no idea what the hell I"m even gonna call myself now... Huslian... no, that doesn"t sound right. Huralan? Ugh."

"I"m sure you would think of something beautiful."

They built the colony on open land close to the base of a nearby mountain, which almost formed a natural dome over the place. I saw the makeshift construction of what looked like a barrier. Not bad. No wonder it took a while to find a place on this planet. The land was vast enough to build a mega city if they kept at it while also hiding them, and with the natural formation of the rocks, they would build a dome over the entire city. The higher we climbed up the set of stairs carved into the stone, I saw the massive freshwater lake and river ahead, and above us were the makings of a defense tower.

"We"ve built the colony around the ship; it could provide the most efficient power grid. Far more advanced than our own. The courtyard itself opens to release the ship but not to disturb the humans above; it"s better to go this way," Connor instructed.

"This is freaky," Cormac gasped once we reached a hidden door built into the rocks. Connor opened it with a set of codes, and inside the dark tunnels were reaver vines that glowed a bluish-green hue in the dark when near a power source.

"The ship still has power?" I asked as we came upon the massive black and greenish-hued ship, which was about the same size as my new ship.

"Yes, we were using it to power the factories and AI Core."

"More AI talk."

"It"s okay," Caspian said, gently touching my back while looking at the ship.

"I"ve never seen a ship like this before."

"Stand back for a moment," Connor instructed. "I must open the ship by bypassing and overriding its systems."

"Then allow me to do it," I said, "I"m sure we don"t need to override anything."

"Done."