Page 61 of Alien Peacock

Two Bululg are on the floor by the consoles, their limbs in awkwards positions.

Bari trots into view. “They look dead. Suicide?”

I relax a fraction. “What are you doing here, Bari? I thought you’d stay back.”

“And I did. I was behind you the whole time. Because I thought, it looks like the control room inthisship is to the left, not to the right. Ah, I think the others have just realized it, too. A little late, guys!”

Arelion comes storming into the room, followed by Virlu. “Ah. We’re too late.” He gives me a curious look.

“They were dead when I came in,” I quickly tell him. “I didn’t shoot them.”

He goes over to a dead Bululg and nudges it with his foot. “Looks like stab wounds. But they don’t have knives. Must have been something else.”

I look around the room. “I heard them scream right before I came in here.”

“Blastedvoidthat I picked the wrong direction!” Arelion seethes. “I wanted one alive!”

“You want to get somewhere quick, better follow the girls,” Bari yips. “Maeve and I came straight here.”

Arelion kicks at every console, making sure none of them are hiding places for a Bululg that might come storming out. “Well, at least we have taken the ship with no casualties on our side. I’ll pilot it back to Gigori, while Cerak flies ours.”

More of the freed captives come in to look at the control room. They take the dead Bululg with them with the intention of throwing them out into space. They all go back to theRevenge, which is much more comfortable. Soon we’re leaving Sprenk behind.

Arelion steadies himself on a console as he flies the ship with the alien controls. “That could have gone really wrong. If there had been armed Bululg in here…”

“... then I would have shot them,” I tell him. “Not to kill, though. You told me you wanted them alive.”

He gives me a tight smile. “Well, if the Bululg are now so scared of us that they’d rather kill themselves than be captured, then that’s kind of a victory, too.”

I put a hand on his shoulder. “I’m glad you didn’t have to risk your life again. Sometimes it’s all right if you don’t lead from the front.”

“Sometimes,” he agrees. “Hopefully, soon I will never need to lead a charge again.”

“Hopefully,” I echo. “No sign of the archmagus yet?”

He sighs. “None. At this point, we have to assume that he will not acknowledge me as the legitimate Supreme Leader of Eo. Itmeans that the war ahead will be much tougher. Buroteo’s men will now fight instead of give up. More Eoans will die.”

I squeeze his massive shoulder. “You spent a lot of time and effort on finding the archmagus, just to avoid that war. I think you’ve done more than what could be expected. My love, I have to ask: do you really need to go to war?”

He looks away. “I’ve been thinking about that. Icouldspend the rest of my days inside Gigori, looking at artworks and slowly eating through the military supplies that were really meant for the war of liberating Eo from its tyrant. In my place, could you do that?”

I shake my head. “You’re talking to someone who went into space just to fight the Bululg.”

He chuckles. “Exactly! You couldn’t just watch things be so wrong without wanting to put them right. I can’t, either.”

I stroke his arm. “I think you will succeed. You’ll have all the Eoans on your side. Or at least most of them.”

“I hope so. I’m counting on it. Because my actual army will be much smaller than Buroteo’s. I’ll make sure we attack in a place where we can make a big difference right away. It would be best if we killed Buroteo, but he’s smart. He makes sure that nobody knows where he is at any one time.”

Outside the big displays, there’s only the weirdness of hyperspace.

“I’m sorry that stupid Archmagus didn’t come through for you,” I tell him. “I never liked him. He seemed… unstable. He made us go through those deadly experiments because he thought it was funny.”

“I assume that powerful beings think they can play with other beings for their amusement,” Arelion says, adjusting the controls. “And they may be right. Sit down there, Maeve. I’ll show you how to control this ship.”

I sit down in a small Bululg seat and grab the controls. “What does this do?”

Arelion calmly teaches me how to fly a Bululg saucer, standing right behind me and looking over my shoulder. He sometimes guides my hands, and sometimes my legs.

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