Chapter 133: Darkness and Light
"Well aware," I chuckled in reply to Midnight’s comment.
"Now. How about we just take everything we need and then blow this ship up? No point in keeping it around," I continued, looking around. It was a nice ship, and I was originally going to offer it to Sha Shou to ’wear’. The poor AI hadn’t popped her head up since she started looking for a body to inhabit. However, knowing what happened here, I didn’t ever want to see this thing again.
"Of course," said Jun Li. "I will think of a way to be able to do it without alerting the Saalistaja."
"Why don’t we use one of the other ships... what are they called? The uglies?" I asked with a slight smirk. The atmosphere was getting a bit tense for all of us, and a bit of joking around was just what we needed.
"Uglies?" asked Midnight and Jun Li at the same time.
"The Uugazts," exclaimed Jun Li before he burst out laughing. "Well, to be fair, they really are ugly."
"I am not even going to pretend I know what is going on, so I am going to make myself useful by taking what is valuable from the ship before we blow it up," chuckled Midnight as he leaned down and nuzzled the side of my cheek.
"If you pile everything up in one of the launch bays, I can transport them over," said Jun Li helpfully.
I waved the giant wolf off before turning to look at the dead body lying completely naked on the table. I looked around the room for a blanket or something to cover her but came up empty. Taking off my corset, I took off my outer dress. Since it was similar to a long coat, I draped it over the woman.
A part of me could easily picture myself in her situation. After all, I was strapped naked to a table for almost six years with nothing covering me. I can still feel the icy cold feeling of the metal table underneath me some nights.
Maybe that was also a factor in why I wanted a bed of nothing but furs. I could guarantee that I would never be cold that way.
"I am sorry this happened to you," I said as I adjusted the garment to cover more of her exposed skin. I was down to a pair of leather pants and a long-sleeve T-shirt with my corset and crown, but I could always replace my outer coat.
However, I wanted to afford her the same dignity that I would wish someone would have given me if they came across my corpse inside of Jun Li.
"I promise you, your death will not be in vain. I know that is not any sort of compensation for what they did to you, but make no mistake, they will rue the day they decided to take humans from their homes." I stroked her hair, matted with blood, as I thought about why the Alliance would want to bring back an extinct species.
Extinct species... only one step past endangered species...
I sneered at the Alliances’ terminology. Yeah, I guess if you want to bring back an extinct species, it would make some sort of sense to introduce an endangered one.
If I wasn’t pissed at the Alliance before, I definitely was now. Maybe I should give them something else to think about besides universal breeders and the re-emergence of an extinct species. "Jun Li, can you tell Midnight that I am going to head back to the ship? If he needs me, I am going to be in the library doing some research."
"Understood. I’ll see you when you get back," said Jun Li before cutting off communications.
Yes, I would need to do a lot of studying to get up to date on how the universe worked. I had become too compliant, going with the flow. No. If I wanted to put an end to this crap that the Alliance has dreamed up, then I would have to start planning. The enemy of my enemy is my friend, and I was willing to bet that the Alliance had a lot of enemies.
Finally figuring out my first step, I strolled out of the medical bay and to the launch bay, where my X94 was. It was time to get to work.
-----
Ye’tab and Au’dtair turned off their camouflage mode and looked around the medical bay that Mei Xing just left.
"This is—" started Ye’tab as he walked toward the cases holding the womb and ovaries.
"Yeah," agreed Au’dtair, looking at the human on the table. This was what his pet could expect if the Alliance realized that she was Subject 1.
"We need to withdraw our support for the Alliance," said Ye’tab, sitting down in front of the touchpad and connecting the port to his own wrist unit. "Without us, they will not be nearly as powerful."
"But how do we tell the Elders that we know without telling them how we learned it?" asked Au’dtair. There was no honor in what these Dryadalis did. However, both males knew that if they were to confront the Alliance with this information, they would only deny it, saying that those Dryadalis didn’t represent them as a whole.
"I say we do nothing," replied Ye’tab, coming to his feet and turning to the other male. "We will take our cues from Mei Xing and implement her plans instead of our own. She seemed to have thought of a solution."
"And the fucking Njeriuujk?" growled Au’dtair. He was not happy having the beast touching his pet, but he was not nearly as upset as he thought he would be.
"We need to have a meeting with him. He can be the one in the light while we do what we do best in the dark," suggested Ye’tab, looking at his hunt mate.
"But I am not going to be happy always being in the dark, Ye’tab," clicked Au’dtair. At some point in time, he wanted to be able to proudly stand in the light next to his pet.
"Me neither, my friend. Me neither."
