Page 59 of Alien Peacock

“Thanks. I just wish it would have been a Bululg.”

“I think you’ll have many more chances to kill Bululg. Now you know you can kill if you must. Not everyone can. The Resistance chose wisely.”

She gives me a tight smile. “So did the planet Eo. Supremacy, I notice you’ve gotten shotagain.”

I follow her gaze. Indeed there’s a singed, black-edged hole on one thigh of my white pants. “Lucky shot. Two hand-widths higher, and you would have been an unhappy woman.”

“Don’t even think about it,” she shudders. “I’ll take care of that wound back in the ship.”

The former captives have moved out of the big cube, leaving all the Fresk and nine of their own.

I kneel down by one of them, feeling helpless. “Gereaon! Stay with us!”

But the light is already going out in his eyes. “It’s for the best, Supremacy,” he rasps. “Take our planet back and make it better than it ever was…”

“We shall do our best, you and I,” I reply, but halfway through the statement I know Gereaon will never hear anything ever again.

I reach out and close his eyes. “You’ve done all you could. Rest now.”

Maeve kneels beside me. “He looks like a… is he…?”

“A dead Eoan,” I sigh. “Not easy to recognize as one without his feathers.”

“Whathappenedto him?!”

I slowly get to my feet. “Buroteo happened to him. And to all of Eo. Let’s leave.” I grab her hand and pull her with me out of the giant cube.

Outside there are two Bululg ships. One is ourRevenge, and the other is rising on a thick beam of white light.

“They’re trying to escape!” I yell. “Run for our ship!”

Maeve and I run ahead, and the others follow. I don’t blame them for hesitating to run into a Bululg ship as large as ours.

Maeve takes charge and directs all three hundred freed captives into the various rooms on the ship, and I sprint for the control room. “Cerak! Go after them! Shoot them down!”

“Shoot who down?” the robot asks. “That other Bululg ship?”

I want to give a scathing reply, but I manage to control myself. “That’s the one. Everyone’s inside. We can take off!”

“I recommend you hold on. This thing can move.”

Cerak has the ship hover before it shoots skyward.

Despite the artificial gravity, I’m thrown towards the bulkhead and have to use my wings to halt my movement before I hit it. “Maeve is aboard,” I tell him tightly. “I don’t want her harmed.”

“I notice you’re not counting the three hundred other organisms you brought aboard,” Cerak comments. “If I didn’t know thatyou’re too in love with yourself to feel affection for anyone else, I might think you were enamored with that small female.”

“Perhaps,” I tell him absentmindedly, spotting the other Bululg ship on the screen. “Perhaps I’ve discovered my ability to love others.”

“Better late than never,” Cerak quips. “Now, I can shoot that ship to pieces. I really think we should.”

“Disable it without causing too much damage,” I instruct him. “We’ll board it and take it over.”

“OrI can turn it into a puff of smoke,” he says. “It’s risk-free. Boarding is a hazardous business.”

“We want the ship,” I tell him tightly. “We will turn it against the Bululg, just like this one.”

“My recommendation stands,” the robot says. “Let me just destroy it!”

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