Page 84 of Guardian's Destiny

"What did the Ohrurs tell you?"

"Oh, you don'tknow?" Sloane baited, her eyebrows arched, and her tone was dripping with sarcasm.

"They told us that at any given time, there are a thousand Space Guardians on duty." Again, I was hoping to pacify Sloane more than I wanted to answer Zapharos. She needed a moment to take a deep breath.

"A thousand over the span of twenty thousand years," Zapharos’s finger ticked against his upper lip, "that's almost a million Space Guardians."

"He can add," Sloane griped.

Zapharos nodded. "That actually makes sense."

"What does?" He confused me.

"As to what the Ohrurs are up to," he responded enigmatically, making it clear he wouldn't elaborate.

"You're like a goddamn Oracle, Zapharos, saying things without explaining anything," Sloane grumbled. "What good are you?"

Zapharos grinned, "Why do you think Oracles are like they are?"

Sloane narrowed her eyes. "Are you saying you were on Earth?"

"Not me, no."

An exasperated huff escaped her before she got her emotions under control after a deep inhale. "Fine, your ancestors."

"You know I can't answer this."

The bastard was enjoying himself.

"Alright, let's get back to our current situation. You will contact my friends and warn them." I distracted the two.

"I said I would." He pushed himself off the wall, "Now if we're done here, I would very much like to?—"

Sloane stepped into his way, her eyes ablaze, "Hold on, buster, we're far fromdonehere. So far from done, I'm not even sure we'll ever get there."

That seemed to amuse the Arkhevari, and he laughed. "I like it when you get all hot and bothered, Sloane."

I didn't like the way he looked at her or his familiar tone. At all. So I stepped in between them. "Enough, you still haven't answered our question about the Ohrur’s fighting capabilities."

For a moment, I thought he would refuse to answer and leave, but he surprised me once again, "The Ohrurs only rely on their Space Guardian force for everything security related. They don't have an army. They have conned themselves into believing they're untouchable because of the Space Guardians."

"So we need to connect with them, wake them up so to speak just like we were." I began formulating a plan.

"That would be a wise move, but beware, you might have already noticed," here he gazed at me assessing, as if searchingfor the answer for his question in his mind, "that not all Space Guardians were created equal."

I shook my head, again with his damn puzzling speech. All Space Guardians were equal. We had no ranks since we always worked alone, except… I startled. "You mean the ones patrolling the grounds, the ones who took you and who were aboard this ship."

His eyes didn't give anything away, and neither did his body language, but I knew I was right, and goosebumps ran up and down my spine.

Sloane paled, "Oh Vraax, I'm sorry, I forgot to tell you… " distraught she wrung her hands, "how could I have forgotten?"

"It's okay, Sloane. Just tell me now," I soothed her.

"I'm so, so sorry."

"It's alright," her obvious distress was starting to get to me, whatever had slipped her mind had to be something terrible.

"When we freed the women, where they were held… there were test tubes, large ones, cylinders… they were filled with… with…"

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