I watched Ohem’s face, watched his internal struggle play out across his body with whatever all that had meant. His Izi had flared brightly with his anger and then died as Aga had talked.
“What is he talking about, Ohem?” I asked, keeping my voice soft.
Ohem’s eyes flicked to my face and his hands flexed at his side. “There are rumors of Unity corruption. That all is not what it seems to those of us living a life of privilege. Rumors of starving people, of forced labor. Sex trafficking, slavery, death sentences. Rumors of people fleeing to out planets like this one. To start a new life free of the Unity. I did not believe them. I still did not believe them even after Rakis tried to kill me, thinking it was only my brother and Vero and not the entire system of government.” Ohem raised a trembling hand and ran it down his face. “Am I a fool, Jack?” He asked me in an anguished voice. His body was hunched forward, like he wanted to curl in on himself.
I went to him, wrapping my arms around his waist. “Not a fool. Just a male that believed in his people.”
Having your illusions shattered was a jarring and traumatizing thing. Ohem looked like this was the very worst day of his life. These people had run from their plant, just to die from some stupid ass disease. Why didn’t they have nanos?
“A fool all the same. I would see things, hear things, and ignore them. Aga has been vocal about the Unity and I would dismiss him. It is a terrible thing to understand at long last.” Ohem shuddered, pulling me tighter against him. His heart was thudding in his chest. He took several deep, trembling breaths, and then sighed.
“I will try to make this right. That is all I can do,” he croaked.
We walked back to the shuttle together, my arm wrapped tightly around Ohem, offering my support while he went through his existential crisis. Ohem left me with Rema while he went to Aga to get the dead buried and the samples gathered for Ghix.
“Why didn’t they have nanos?” I asked.
Rema started, looking down at me like he was surprised to see me. He blinked a few times and flicked his wings. “They take them out when they flee. They believe in starting over in truth, from what I understand, and that means rejecting anything the Unity has handed out. Like nanos. Their children would be born pure. Foolishness. It has led them to their deaths.” Rema’s wings closed in around him, protecting him from the worst of the rain. He still hadn’t put his helmet back on, his hair was plastered all over his face, torn free from his braid by the violent winds. He said nothing more, and I didn’t want to push him. The male looked haunted.
I watched as the crew and soldiers worked together to dig in the storm, setting up a system that kept the water out of the graves so they could place the wrapped bundles into them and cover them up. They’d brought all kinds of equipment for excavating any ruins we’d found. Now that equipment was being used to dig graves. Ohem and Aga were off to the side having a deep discussion by the looks of it. Aga nodded and embraced Ohem. The two males hugged for a long moment before breaking apart.
“He has been gone for many years. He barely goes home to Stellios, and then he only goes home to see his mother and family,” Rema said. I gave him a confused look, and he smiled sadly. “He has been on the Solus for years. He doesn’t understand what has been going on with the Unity. He goes where he is needed. There have been many, many wars that have kept him away from Stellios. He barely knows the people he fights for.”
I nodded, understanding.
“It would seem that almost every time we were due to come home for a time, a war would break out with some out planet and we would be called away again.” I looked sharply at Rema and he nodded. “Considering Rakis’s actions, I think we were kept away intentionally.”
My eyes widened. This was some deep government conspiracy shit. Rakis hadn’t wanted Ohem to look too closely at things back home, what better way to keep the born warrior away than to send him off to war.
“Why didn’t you say anything to him when you suspected that was the case?” I asked. I dreaded his answer, but Rema only smiled that sad smile again.
“I didn’t know until Rakis attempted to kill Ohem. Why would I? We had always been told from young children that the Unity was a harmonious government that took care of its people equally. I am not from a family as well known or as exalted as the At’ens, but my own House is connected well enough. I noticed nothing amiss in my travels on Stellios and Axsia. All appeared well. I joined the fleet when I came of age and have rarely been on Stellios since then. Only Aga has made comments about the corruption. He is from an out planet annexed during the last war on Xemia. He would understand better than most the true nature of the Unity.”
Holy shit, my poor mate for having his reality stripped from him. He’d been freaking Red Pilled. And poor Aga! He was the Morpheus in this equation, and no one had believed him. Rema’s face got that far off look when someone was talking via their links and I waited for the news. It came from Ghix's frantic voice from my link. “Enemy incoming!”
Chapter 22
Ihadtakenasingle step towards Ohem when the first blast incinerated a soldier a few yards in front of me; the percussion throwing me backwards with enough force to dent the side of the transport shuttle when I impacted into the side of it. Something crunched in my back, ripping a scream from me.
The pain flared white hot for a single moment, stealing my breath from me, then I was up and running towards Ohem. I passed a down Rema on my mad dash across the space between myself and my mate. I couldn’t stop to make sure he was okay. Icy fingers of fear were wrapped around my heart, trying to crush it. I couldn’t see Ohem.
Another blast exploded ahead of me and I rolled aside to avoid being thrown again. The valley erupted into chaos, with soldiers and crew screaming in pain or yelling instruction, links forgotten in the fight. The storm still raged around us like a hurricane, the rain and wind making it almost impossible to determine where the hell we were being shot from.
I heard the roar from my right, like wrath incarnate. I tore the helmet from my head with a clawed hand and shifted my form to leap over a transport shuttle rolled onto its side and found Ohem engaged in a vicious fight with a huge alien creature. A cross between a rhino and a dog, the thing had three large horns on its face that it was using them to try to gore my mate. It roared again when Ohem opened a gash along its flank.
I felt the shot coming this time and jumped out of the way in time to watch one of the transport shuttles blow up in a fireball. The movement drew the creature’s attention to me and it charged me while I picked myself up from the ground where I’d landed to avoid being blown into ash. Ohem snarled, grabbed the thing by its leg, and drug it backwards away from me. The rhino dog whirled to snap its great teeth at Ohem.
Ohem bitch slapped it with all six claws, tearing away one horn from its face. I looked to the sky to spot whatever craft was fucking shooting at me. I couldn’t see shit through the storm clouds and had to dodge out of the way when it shot at me again.
This blast caught the rhino dog’s hip, shredding its back legs. The unholy sound that came from the beast’s mouth had me covering my ears with both hands. Ohem jumped up to straddle its neck and wrenched its head violently to one side, breaking its neck in a satisfying crunch of bone. The shrieking stopped, and I lowered my hands to look at my mate. He stepped away from the dead creature, his helmet retracting away from his head as he came to stand in front of me and met my gaze, his eyes alight with rage.
The air whined. I snarled and pushed Ohem back as hard as I could. The shot hit right between us. White sweltering heat blinded me. The skin burned away from the front of my body, my right eye searing in my socket. I screamed, my tongue melting in my mouth from the heat, choking me. I was thrown back, landing on my side with a crunch of bone. My body swelled for a second, and then the pain was gone. I was healing damn near instantly. Whatever we’d done to my nanos, they were now working double time.
I lurched forward on all fours to where Ohem lay. He was already getting to his feet, his armor smoking where deep rends showed his bloody skin on his stomach and chest. Fresh liquid armor was filling the torn spaces and solidifying again, self patching.
“Are you okay?” I panted.
Ohem cracked his neck before nodding. “Yes,ursang. Only a few scratches. Where are they shooting from?”
