Devotion (17 page)

“How long have you known?” Torac asked, sounding betrayed.

“We only told Celia this morning,” Elissa said defensively. “I have only just found out. There has been no deceit here. Only shock and confusion.”

“And you knew, Okil?” Torac asked, while Lytril still stood at the back of the chamber in silence.

“Yes,” Okil answered.

“And you chose to keep the information to yourself? And Darl. He knew too?” Torac pressed.

“He wanted to be sure. To come up with answers.”

“This is an act of treason.” Ishk came forward, his face blue with anger.

Evie went to him, touching him, trying to soothe the hot-headed man. “No, it is not. Okil has been acting with a level head. About everything, Ishk. He is the only one who can see these things from both sides.”

“And I cannot?” Ishk stormed.

“No, you act with the head of a Karalian, when you also need to temper it with the heart of a human.” Evie looked at him with pity.

“What does that mean?” Ishk demanded.

Okil answered. “That the knee-jerk reaction of the council will be to take the females you need from Earth and force them to have your children. The council will see it with a narrow view. The search for a new planet, saving humans, will no longer be a viable risk. But you would be wrong.” Okil stood tall and proud, and Tikki’s heart swelled with love for him. This was the hardest thing any person, human or alien, would ever have to do.

“You are turning against us, Okil?” Ishk rounded on him. “It all falls into place. Your knowledge of the child, meetings with the President to seal our doom.”

“That is not true.” Tikki stepped forward. “Okil has always sought out ways to make our planets work together.”

“And yet he stands here with a female and a boy he smuggled onto the planet. While you, Tikki Sergeant, are believed dead on Earth.”

“It would be hard not to see this as a conspiracy between Earth and Okil,” Lytril came back to them, his authority evident as Torac and Ishk stopped their questions. “However, I will allow Okil the chance to explain things.”

Okil stepped forward, placing his hands in Lytril’s and making direct eye contact with him.

“I had chosen Tikki as my woman. When I travelled to Earth to meet with the President, I visited her beforehand, and she told me that she could no longer come to Karal because of the child she had been asked to care for.”

“And then you met with the President of Earth?”

“Yes. We discussed the ships he wanted the Karal to give to Earth so that they could explore space and find a new planet. As stated in my report, I told him that our technology is not available to them.”

“You did not conspire with him to bring a virus to Karal? He did not offer you an antidote for the virus, so that you could rule here?”

“No,” Okil said, his voice firm, his tone adamant.

“And the boy?”

“Tikki was visited by Harri. He knew she had the child. At the time we did not know why he wanted Charlie so much.”

“And now you do?”

“His parents were involved in the making of the virus. He was being held as leverage over his parents.”

“And it never occurred to you, Okil, that this boy may be the carrier of such a virus.”

“He went through decon’; it would have been discovered.”

“At least you did not completely lose your loyalty to Karal.”

“My loyalty will always be to Karal.”

“And now the female child.”

“Darl thinks it is to do with our DNA being passed to Elissa during the reconstruction of her skin. He never looked for the gender of the child before because he had no idea something like this is even possible.”

“And he wanted to be sure? It was not because he was scared of the consequences?”

Okil shook his head. “He needed to be sure. But also we were both concerned that to allow the human race to die out because we may no longer need females from another species is wrong.”

“Why? Because you are so fond of them?”

“Because we cannot be sure of our future. What if the daughters born now are not fertile? The prime for our next generation is a hundred Earth years away. What if we have let the human race slip from existence and we find we needed them after all?”

Lytril loosed Okil, who rubbed his hands as if they had been burned. His attention switched back to Vanessa. “And your bargain?”

“Lytril, I love you. You know that. And I hope that you love me.” Her voice wavered as though at this moment she was no longer sure.

“I do, Vanessa. As much as I feel capable of love.”

“Then know that we want the same thing. Please, find a home for humans, another planet. At least send out the deep space missions as planned.” She took a deep breath. “In return, Elissa has suggested that any human female who comes to Karal is asked to have two children. Or more, the choice is yours. But one of those children will be a boy, and the second will be a girl, if you can make it work. I’m no scientist and you have to consider that what happened with Elissa is a pure fluke. That re-creating the same circumstances may be difficult or even impossible.”

“I will assemble the Hier Council and we will discuss this. I make no promises,” Lytril turned to walk away, but Tikki couldn’t let this go, not yet.

“Wait. What about Charlie?”

“The boy?” Lytril turned his full force on her, the colours which he had controlled so well finally coming to the surface of his skin. “I will have him sent back to Earth. Think yourself lucky you are not returning there too.”

“No. I want to go. If he goes, then I will have to go to look after him. He has no one else.”

“Once a female come to Karal, she does not return. You entered that bargain when you came here. Especially when the Earth President made enquiries and was assured you were not on the cruiser.” He saw the shock on her face. “Yes. They are hunting you, Tikki Sergeant.”

“Then they must be hunting Charlie too. They will know he has been here.” Lytril did not answer. “At least find his parents, Return him to them. They must be worried sick.”

“His parents,” Lytril said. “Do you know who they are?”

“No. But surely with your technology you can find out.”

“He has a tag?”

“No.” She shook her head. “It was removed so that he couldn’t be traced.”

“Tell me, boy, do you know anything about your parents? Their names or where they live?”

“My mom is called Sollu and my dad is called Treva. We used to live in a small house in a town called Farrowhampton.”

“Can you remember your surname, Charlie…?” Tikki asked.

“I’m not supposed to say,” Charlie answered. “I shouldn’t have told you anything.” He turned and buried his face into Tikki’s legs.

“It’s OK, we want to get you home to your mom and dad. Isn’t that right?” She looked up at Lytril, but his expression was unreadable, and she was no longer sure that was what the Hier Ruler wanted. For him it might be better if the whole family were dead.

“Charlie Jameson.”

It was too late now. If the Hier Council wanted to get rid of the threat to Karal entirely, then they had all the information they needed to kill that threat.

“Thank you, Charlie,” Tikki said and then stood up.

“You may all go.” The Hier Commander dismissed them all.

“And you don’t think it’s weird at all?” Tikki asked as Okil prepared to go to Earth.

“Why would I?” he asked. “The Hier Council unanimously voted to continue with the deep space missions; although there is no guarantee they will create a colony. But now is not the time to argue that fact. Wait until they have found a planet.”

“And you think it’s perfectly natural for the council to allow Charlie’s parents to come and live here?” she asked for the hundredth time. “I never expected them to change their minds about human males coming to Karal.”

“Nothing the Hier Council does is ever perfectly natural,” he said smiling and kissing her. “I am just pleased they have made an exception. Of course it is safer for them to come and live here than for them to be allowed to live on Earth.”

“You mean the alternative would be for them to have been killed? Murdered?”

“It could have been done. I am sure the Hier Ruler is capable of anything to protect the planet. As he should be. The fact that the President was in on this has compounded the danger.”

“And yet the President is still the President and you still have to deal with him.”

“There is no direct proof. And what if there was? We could not assassinate him. Could we?” Although Okil would have volunteered for the job.

“No,” Tikki conceded. “Although information Charlie’s parents have, may be enough to implicate him. Enough for him to be charged.”

“With what? Do you think killing an alien race is covered in your Earth laws?” Okil asked. “I expect the Karal are judged to be lower than your skims by some humans.”

“It should be the law. But I expect you are right.” She looked sad, and he wanted to comfort her, it was a harsh truth, but she needed to understand.

“We cannot live by what
should
be.” Okil said.

“So you just remove the people who can actually perfect the virus?”

“This way is best. I think the Hier Ruler intends to extract any information they may have about the development of the virus. The chip only held half the data. Charlie’s parents bargained with the other half.”

“
Extract
the information?” Tikki was shocked.

“Yes, we need to know everything.” He placed his hand on her arm; letting calm sensations run from him into her. “I know it’s hard to understand.”

“No. I get it. I just can’t see why Sienna didn’t destroy the data and end this.”

“From what I have been able to discover, she hoped that there would be a way to expose the President and the resistance. Unfortunately there was no one willing to listen.”

“And so they ended up dead. Sienna and Charlie’s Funny Daddy.”

“Yes. The corruption ran deep and once it was known she had Charlie and the data, they were hunted.”
And murdered.

“And Charlie’s parents?”

“They kept the other half of the data, because the information is tradable. As you can see. It is the
only
reason they are being offered an escape from their life on Earth.” Charlie’s parents hadn’t taken long to accept the offer from Karal. In the details of the mission objectives, Okil had seen, there was a brief explanation of how desperate the two humans were. They were to be approached with caution. And
only
brought to Karal if they were considered mentally stable. If not, Charlie
would
be an orphan.

“You think after all they went through, being separated from Charlie, everything … that they would still make the virus viable?”

“If they were cornered, they may well have handed it over to the President.” In Okil’s mind, there was no maybe. If the President or the resistance found them first, the Karal would be in terrible danger. That is why he had to leave now.

He kissed her. “Be safe, I will be back tomorrow.”

She flung her arms around his neck and held him tight. “I am glad this is the last time you are going to go to Earth.”

“In a way, so am I. But only because the Hier Council has asked me to continue to oversee the deep space missions. That will keep me busy here, and I can at least make sure that all of Earth’s and Karal’s needs are met.”

“I’ll miss you.” She kissed him fiercely and he knew she wanted him to stay, and part of him wanted to stay too. A very large part, that was concerned that this was some trick by the Hier Council: that he was going to his death and he would never see Tikki again.

“Stay close to Elissa. Until I’m back I don’t want you or Charlie to be alone. Do you understand?” He hated frightening her like this. Never before had he mistrusted his people or its rulers. But he had to agree with Tikki, this was unusual behaviour, particularly for the Hier Ruler.

“I will,” she said, stepping back and letting him go. “We plan to clean the rooms in the breeding house where Charlie’s family will live.”

“Yes. It is one thing for them to be brought here, but another for them to be given any kind of freedom. And once the colony does go ahead, that is where they will live. This is a short-term solution. I think it is only because Lytril wishes to have people on the new planet who are scientists, and not loyal to Earth alone, that he has allowed it. After the way they have been treated by the Earth government, he hopes they will be loyal to him. If we can get them off Earth without them being intercepted.”

“Be careful, Okil.”

And then he went to the space cruiser, turning once to wave goodbye to her before he joined three other Karalians on board. Torac, the Hier Commander, was travelling back to Earth. The other two were guards; he recognised Drak and Rahcol, and felt easier. If they were planning to assassinate him, he would have expected guards he didn’t know, maybe even of the warrior class. It took a lot to kill a fellow Karalian.

The journey was quick; they had prior clearance to land at the airport. The whole premise of the trip was for Okil to give a personal answer to the President on the subject of the Karal supplying space cruisers for Earth’s use. He knew the President would not like the answer, but it was a diversionary tactic. While Okil was having his head chewed off about the cruisers, the other three were going to extract Charlie’s parents.

They had been located

A soon as he was finished, Okil was to make his way back to the cruiser where hopefully the others would be waiting. Then they would take off and journey straight back to Karal. It still surprised Okil that the council was taking this risk, but then there was no other alternative. The only way to stop this virus becoming a reality was to take the people who were capable of developing it.

“We rendezvous here in two hours. I don’t care how you do it, Okil, but you finish your meeting and get back here so we can leave. The longer we are on the ground, the more danger we are in.”

“What about the humans? Are you going to remove their tags?” Okil asked, wondering if they needed a med kit to take with them.