Page 103 of Alien Captain's Prisoner

“Run,” I plead. “Please, Aelon, just run.”

I’m begging him. I don’t care about my own pride any longer. I don’t need to be taken seriously by men like Chris anymore. I don’t need my triad to even obey me. I just need them to choosemeover their misguided notions of violence and honor.

Aelon is tortured. He’s trying to stay emotionless – something his species practices from the first days of their lives. They’re a fucked-up, repressive society of men who don’t dare show which things hurt them – but he can’t force down that pain forever. Aelon’s got too much of it welling up inside of him.

“Tasha,” he murmurs, “I can’t lose you again - but I can’t run, either. If The Instigator leaves, then the Toads will kill the miners I swore to protect. There is not enough time to evacuate them. They’ll die if we run – so there’s only one course of action left open to us. Ihaveto fight.”

Aelon steps forward, taking my hand.

“I’m begging you –youshould leave, Tasha. Leave and don’t come back. I don’t think I’m getting out of this one alive – but you can.”

Captain Aelon is vulnerable. Angry, vengeful Aelon is finally accepting the specter of defeat. It twists like a knife inside of me. Heknowshe’s not getting out of this one alive, but he can’t leave the miners on the surface to be massacred.

No one can stand up to a Toad mothership.

I don’t know what Captain Hoplan told the owners of that Mothership, or all those who pilot the thousand assault ships that surround it, but he must have massively exaggerated the riches on offer to have received such massive support from these profit-hungry aliens.

How many Orbs did they claim we’d stolen? Toads will do almost anything for money. If they think they can incapacitate an Aurelian warship and take its riches without the Empire finding out, they’d do it.

This is why Aelon’s ship is the perfect target. It wouldn’t be juicy enough usually – but with twenty-six Orbs on board, plus the nearby mining camps on the planet’s surface to raid, The Instigator has suddenly become a Toad’s wet dream.

Aurelians control almost all of the Orbs in the universe. They have enough to be able to outfit each of their soldiers with an Orb-Blade, and each of their assault ships with an Orb-Drive, which allows them to shift great distances, something only the most powerful Toad and human ships can do.

Toadslustfor Orbs. Even if they’re too scared to use Orb-Shifting right now – since it’s become so unreliable – there’s still nothing like an Orb to power the engines of a ship or the most devastating weapons in an arsenal. The Toads are even willing to take on an Aurelian Warship for it – as long as they have numbers in their favor, and the element of surprise.

But would they fight the same battle without those advantages?

My gut says no. Toads are cowardly. They wouldn’t want to fight The Instigator on even terms. Even with overwhelming firepower, Toads would hesitate. They like a sure thing – not a gamble in which they have to risk their lives. They might lose millions at a casino to quench their thirst for easy riches, but they won’t do anything that could result in them being blasted to nothingness.

They want the Orbs without the risk.

That’s our way out. We can resolve this without any bloodshed…

…but at an incalculable cost to Aelon’s pride.

“The Orbs, Aelon. That’s all they want.Givethem the Orbs.”

Rage boils in his aura. Aelon can’t clamp it down. My words set him off.

“Those twenty-six Orbs? In Toad hands? That will result in twenty-six-thousand innocents dead. They’re coming to kill us, don’t you understand, Tasha? They’re coming to wipe out the entire mining crew. Don’t you get it? If I give those Toads the Orbs, I’ll have the blood of whoever they kill or kidnap with them onmyhands!”

He squares off in front of me.

“Now, if you don’t get in that Reaver and leave, I’m going to chain you up, throw you in it, and waste one of my pilots to take you off this ship.”

I lose.

I can’t convince him. It’s not a logical argument. By logic, I’m on his side – Toads are willing to kill innocents, and therefore their kind need to be snuffed out of existence. Giving them the Orbs makes us just as culpable as they are for whoever gets hurt by those powerful objects. We’d be soaking our hands in blood that hasn’t even been spilled yet.

But it will be.

Giving those Toads the Orbs is murder.

It shames me, but Iwouldmurder those innocents if it meant I could be with my Bonded triad – but only if they’d put everything aside for me.

Not just their anger and their need for revenge – but their very selves.

Some Aurelians, like Garrick and Aelon, are born to protect the weak and helpless. Others, like the General who’d laughed in Aelon’s face when he’d tried to save those women from that Toad ship, live for their own power and prestige. Their version of honor is twisted with pride – a different pride than the kind that’s set Aelon on this doomed path of vengeance and bloodshed.

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