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“Compromising your authority.” She laughed bitterly. “You’re the most powerful being in the Vraxian Empire. You could give the order and I’d be free in a heartbeat, no questions asked. But you’re going to keep me locked up.”

“Kara…”

“Go to hell.”

She turned her back on him. Vahn hesitated for a moment, searching for something to say, some reason to make her trust him again. He couldn’t think of anything.

And he couldn’t tarry here any longer. His people needed him. He turned on his heel and left.

Behind him, Kara dragged the heel of her hand across her cheek, wiping away her tears. There was a time when she’d allowed him to see her vulnerability. But that was in the past.

She’d never show weakness in front of him again. And she’d be damned if she let him see her cry.

She curled up on her bunk, resigned to another night of restlessness and insomnia. She was wrong.

For the first time in days, she slept like the dead.

Four

She didn’t see him again until they landed on Vraxos two days later, though she heard his speech on the ship’s speakers. He was good, she admitted grudgingly. The right blend of empathy and authority. Sharing his grief for the passing of his father but reassuring his people about the future.

A future he vowed would be free of war.

She found herself listening to his words and hoping they were true.The mark of a good politician,she thought ruefully.Drawing you in with their promises.Her mother was the same.

There were no windows in the brig but when the engine vibrations changed, Kara knew they were starting their descent. Fear gripped her and she had to bend double for a few moments, forcing the breath in through her nose and out through her mouth.

Vahn won’t let anything happen to me. Despite everything, she did actually believe that. The blue asshole might have lied about who he was but he’d always protected her. Always.

She forced herself to stay calm. There was nothing to be gained by fretting over her fate. She’d find out soon enough.

It was several hours before she was taken off the ship. She guessed she was the last item to be unloaded – which meant Vahn had left her behind. Fear rose in her throat again and she swallowed it down.

The soldiers that came to get her were different to her usual prison guards, and not as gentle. She was pushed face-first against the bars as they fastened thick metal restraints to her wrists.

“Bondage already, boys?” she asked chirpily. “What, no dinner first?”

She knew they could understand her, thanks to the microbes all Vraxians carried in their brains. What they didn’t know was that she had them too. So when one of the seven-foot aliens told her to start walking, she feigned blankness.

“No comprendo, amigo. Hey!” This last as she was shoved unceremoniously out of the cell. “Watch it, you piece of snake-shit.”

The guards knew they were being insulted. ‘Snake’ was what humans called them because of their scales, their reptilian eyes, and the sinuous extra limbs which grew from their torsos. The guard shoved her again, snickering as she stumbled.

Kara swallowed her anger. Clearly these guys hadn’t got the memo. They didn’t give a shit how they handled her, and if she provoked them too much she might end up getting ‘accidentally’ hurt.

They walked through the ship back towards the main hatch. Apart from themselves, the corridors were empty. Everyone had already disembarked and the vessel was being powered down.

Small mechbots whizzed around cleaning the detritus left behind by hundreds of troops. Not that there was much. Even after living in space for God knows how long, Vraxian soldiers were pathologically tidy. If those cleaning bots ever had to deal with the crap that accumulated on an Earth carrier, the shock would probably fry their circuits.

She wondered where Vahn was. No doubt neck-deep in protocol and red tape, returning as he was to new duties and a new title. Presumably there was a funeral to organize. And maybe a coronation, she wasn’t sure.

Of all the lectures about Vraxos she’d been forced to sit through at the military academy, royal ceremonies hadn’t been included. Or more likely, she’d slept through that bit.

Whatever, it might be a while before she saw Vahn again.

The guards pushed her through the exit hatch and down the ramp. Warmth bathed her skin as she left the artificial environment of the ship, and her lungs filled with the fresh tang of non-recycled air.

She stepped off the ramp onto Vraxian soil and for the first time in her life, she saw the planet Earth had been at war with for nearly twenty years.