Page 50 of Stealing Jia

Trayon gently massaged my stiff neck.“I need fresh eyes on the surveillance vid our drones took of the Rodan base and Denebola. I am sending it to the command console in our quarters.”

“You’ve got it.”I gave him a quick kiss on the cheek and left. I prayed the kids hadn’t gotten into the bloodworms again.

Chapter Ten

I hurried into our quarters and blew out a breath of relief. Not a blood worm or a Tabor anywhere. I would miss the kids. Bey not so much. A laugh broke from me when I looked in the crib. The little guys were both chewing on the Izix bone.

“Momma!” Cason held up his arms.

Pepe jumped up and down. “You back.”

“I told you I would be.” I picked them up.“Who’s hungry?”

“Me.”Pepe wiggled excitedly. “Want hamburger.”

“Bloos. Bloos.”

Adoz chirped.

“He wants Bahmi fish again,” Chiara translated.

“He’s got it.Do want anything Chiara?”

“No. Shani only eat once a week.”

“Huh? I didn’t know that.” I programmed all the meals and set the bowls on the floor. If the kids made a mess, the cleaning bots would deal with it. I just wish I had known about them sooner.

Getting myself a glass of Merlot to calm my still ragged nerves, I walked over to Trayon’s sleek platinum command console and typed in his password. Color me impressed. He could run the entire ship from here. Until our mind meld, I hadn’t known Trayon was number three in the Askole hierarchy. Which did explain Zarek’s polite behavior. He wasn’t about to do anything to destroy his four hundred-year-old treaty with the Askole.

I scanned the information scrolling across the screens. Deck three and five had minor hull damage. A laser cannon had overheated and needed to be serviced. Whoa! In the firefight they had launched over two hundred missiles.

Chiara slithered onto the desk. “What does Father Trayon want us to look for?”

“Anything out of the ordinary.”I brought up the drone footage.

The charcoal gray moon was covered with dead volcanoes, impact craters and old lava flows. The heavily shielded Rodan military base sat in the middle of a large basin. Their air defenses included laser cannons, and missile batteries. A squadron of Marauders constantly patrolled Denebola and the moon base.

Denebola’s icy gray waters were littered with large areas of floating green goop and a few funky looking icebergs. There were no islands or landmasses. The only lifeforms that showed up on the scanners were odd looking fish with protrusions over their bodies and orange leaf-like algae growing on the ocean floor.

I studied the recordings. “What are the Rodan protecting on Denebola? Do you think it’s Giovanni’s lab or something else?”

“Something else. After we were captured, the Rodan soldiers put us younglings in small cages, and brought us to the Commander’s quarters to be eaten. He was talking with one of their scientists on the vid screen about something called Eugleanophyta. He said Denebola must be protected at all costs. Once they had harvested enough of the algae, they would rule the galaxy.”

“Eugleanophyta?”I searched my new memories. The algae only grew in extremely cold water and it was worth its weight in gold. Once it was dried and ground into a powder, it reversed the effects of aging. Epsilon was the only known planet in the galaxy where Eugleanophyta could be found and that algae was yellow not orange.

I frowned in concern when shudders suddenly rocked Chiara’s body.“Easy. You’re safe now. The Rodan commander is dead. He’ll never hurt another living soul.”

“He ate my nest mates.”

“But he didn’t eat you.”

Chiara let out a sad little hiss.I was so afraid I lost control of my bowels. The commander wouldn’t touch me because of the smell. I was forced to lay in my own waste and watch my nest mates die. I can still hear their screams. Without the proper death ritual, their souls cannot move on to the next world.”

Holy Mother. I cradled Chiara against my chest. “I’m so sorry. No child should have to witness that. You need to understand that you’ve done nothing to be ashamed of. Focus on avenging your nest mates and stopping those monsters from hurting others.”I instinctively made the sign of the cross and prayed, “Into your hands, O Lord, we humbly entrust Chiara’s nest mates. Give us your grace to mourn the dead. Grant the younglings eternal peace forever and ever. Amen.”

Chiara rubbed her head against my face. “I appreciate your words of comfort, but I cannot get the images of their deaths out of my head.”

I flinched as the horrific memories of bloated corpses littering the streets of Rome abruptly flashed across my mind. The only thing that had helped our grief was the memorial mass. I wiped at the tears rolling down my cheeks. “Tell me what you need to do a proper death ritual and we’ll hold one.”

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