Page 75 of Bred by the Alien Prince

"And the children you forced to work in your factories, which infected them with deformities and disease. Or your food lotteries because half the planet was on the brink of starvation. Most of your freshwater had long been tainted, and what little was left was pumped directly into your palaces. Perhaps those are the reasons they handed us the keys so willingly. That and you killed off half of your own family, giving them no real options to turn to."

"Speaking of family," Daruuk said, cutting me off. "I want my sister released into my custody."

"Youhaven't even been released yet."

Leave it to Swarti to be the level-headed one here. "We need to focus on informing the humans of what is going on and handling the repercussions of such an endeavor," he sighed. "You, Derek. How do you think your people will take the news that they are but one of many races here?"

"With fear but wonder and curiosity. We've always wondered if we were alone; this would be exciting news."

"If they don't already know," I said, I might as well let the cat out of the bag, as my Caspian would say, and see what happens next. "There is a possibility that my brother Regis knew about your kind, and has known about you for quite some time."

"What?!" Swarti exclaimed, shocked by the revelation.

"Do you know about this?" I kept my attention on the human.

"I heard there's a chance they sent us here to be captured." He swallowed hard. "But I only found this out a few hours ago."

I looked to Daruuk. "I want the truth. You worked with my brother Regis. Why arm these humans now when you were the one who attacked their colony ship? What game are you playing?"

"The only one I can play." Darruk scoffed. "Yeah, I worked with your brother because he promised me that when he became King he would restore my rule. He gave me the coordinates of the human vessel and told me to round up as many as I could to take to Qazi. I had no issues working with him until he made a deal with Feion to hand him a machine the humans brought with them. They wanted to replicate them into an army. I drew the line at my involvement with him and decided to visit these humans to prepare them to join my cause. Unfortunately, Regis had already gotten here before me…almost as if he knew exactly where these humans would be." he chuckled. "I knew you Valisians and your quest for power would destroy everything."

"Don't lump me in the same category as him. I turned down Feion's ridiculous offer, but it would seem as if Regis is out of control." But something didn't quite add up.

"That is troubling," Swarti's voice of concern cut through my thoughts. "How long has Regis known of humans and their machines and yet reported nothing to the hegemony."

"Four Earth years ago is when the first human vessel was attacked," I replied.

"Wait," Caspian's soft voice filled the room. "Connor, you said when your supply ship was attacked, that the Valisians took one of the pods. What happened to the ship they arrived on? If they took our pod then they had to leave a ship."

I hated that I gasped, even slightly. "And how would these Valisians leave a new space-faring world that has never heard of the existence of other species? It would be impossible for Regis to have been on the human world and to have left it without alerting the humans to our existence. Unless he left on the human colony ship Ignis. Which is impossible as I've seen Regis in person prior to the attack."

"Then who landed on the human world?" Swarti sighed.

"Connor. Answer Caspian's question."

"We salvaged it."

"Where?" Cormac asked. The first thing he'd said during this entire meeting. He had even stopped slouching.

"Beneath this settlement," Connor replied stone-faced.

The humans' collective gasp told me that none of them knew such a ship existed in their midst—no point in asking a pointless question.

"Then, after this meeting is over, I want to take a look at it," I said. "And Swarti, when you return to the Eber'luian, I want you to make a record of any missing Valisans and ships during that time."

"All this time, there was an alien ship under here?" Derek sighed, looking tired.

"Let's move on," I said; the meeting must go on and we had other matters to attend to. "Usually, everyone wants something out of a discussion; otherwise, why have one?"

"You already know what I want," Daruuk said, unwilling to relent.

"Yes, you won't stop telling me."

"I also want your head on a pike for hanging my brother."

"Well, that is off the table," I waved, dismissive of the matter. "Since we know what Daruuk wants, I'll be forthcoming with whatIwant. Our race is dying, slowly but surely, this is hardly a secret anymore. A member of your species has undergone a mutation into a hybrid of our race, and that is precious to us. We want to know if this isn't some lucky fluke."

"Is that why the others attacked us?" The human woman asked, looking from Caspian to myself.

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