Kissing him would be stupid. It would be, but she wanted to kiss him anyway.
He said, “I will discuss this with you again. But not now. I will fight the Gorlites because I know, as well as you do, what will happen if they have a whole planet at their disposal. They will mate like crazy, and they will eat their way through Old Earth, growing stronger and larger in numbers the whole time. Then, then they will do what they have always done when they have wrecked something to the point they cannot squeeze one more ounce of use from it.”
He turned and strode away.
Jessica took three long breaths. She had to go after him. He had to see that it was not just the Gorlites that he needed to go after but also the actual Federation traitors. That was the real enemy for them just then, and if they did not take them down…
“I have to make him see some sense,” she said and started after him.
He had to help her save the Federation.
It was not what she wanted to do either. She hated the Federation with every fiber of her being, and with good reason. She had seen first-hand how that alliance killed everything in its path and turned a blind eye to injustices committed by the ones high within its ranks.
The Federation cared only for wealth and power, and while some planets had rulers that were just and fair and a population that still had divides but somehow managed to lessen the gaps between its lowest citizen and its highest one, Old Earth was not one of those planets.
Old Earth had been killed by climate change and war. The carogen bombs set off by the long-gone countries and the climate change had caused the seas to swallow the old land masses, and now the ocean waters were so acidic that touching a fingertip into the water would cause instant death.
The cities of old were gone, destroyed by fire and flood and the effects of the carogen bombs. What had remained had two very different and distinct classes of people.
Those who could live above, and those who had to live below.
Those who lived above enjoyed the sun and the air brought in through the domes while those below were forever gasping for more oxygen, straining for a clean breath. The air they breathed was sufficient for life, but it felt flat and dank in the lung and mouth.
She shook that off as she walked behind Talon, doing her best to match his powerful stride. Now was not the time to hate the caste system on Old Earth.
Now was the time to try to save that planet, and she needed Talon’s help and the crew. She needed him.
