Page 95 of Sworn to the Alien

Not all Chis remained true and faithful to their warrior ancestors.

Some had allowed themselves to be swept up with modern ideas of what a Chi wassupposedto eat, how he wassupposedto act.

Never mind the facts, never mind our glorious history.

They somehowknewbetter and we were supposed to just follow what they said.

I don’t think so.

It made them weak and feminine and easy to boss around.

I grabbed the Orb and tore it from him.

I grabbed the frail figure by the collar and shoved him toward the opening.

“I-I’m not a p-part of th-this!” he said. “I-I just h-had to v-validate the a-artefact.”

“You’re a part of it now,” I said.

I shoved him again and he fell through the hole.

He tripped on the torn tarpaulin and it was lucky he did — otherwise, he would have gotten a thick bolt through the face.

Hm.

He clearly wasn’t a part of this gang or else the scumbag holding Layla hostage wouldn’t have been so quick to open fire on him.

With a sigh, I grabbed him by the ankle and yanked him back.

He crashed to the floor in a tangle of limbs before scampering off to sit back on his chair.

Why that was meant to be a good hiding place, I would never know.

“I thought you wanted the Orb?” I yelled.

“I do,” came the response.

“But you must know you’re not going to get it by blasting a hole in me. I’ll make sure I fall on top of it, shattering it into a million pieces.”

And to make my point, I opened my jacket and tucked the Orb into the back.

If he hit me with his blaster, it would knock me backward and it would be crushed for sure.

He might even strike the Orb with his own plasma, disintegrating it before my body hit the floor.

“You can have the Orb,” I said. “I just want Layla.”

“Come out with your hands up,” he said.

I checked the time on my communicator.

Only a few minutes had passed.

It would be at least another ten minutes before the others showed up.

Even then, they would likely make a lot of noise bringing their ships in as close as possible.

They couldn’t hope to sneak up on this guy.

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