The building that Drake pulled her toward rose high in the sky. The peak of it was needle thin and she stared at the peak, her brow furrowing as she wondered just how they would get to it.
That answer was simple. The oldest of tech. A car that slid them to the top and into a room filled with blinking screens and commers that would broadcast whatever they said.
Drake pushed her into a corner and spoke. His body shielded her from the view of the people who had already been in the room and his eyes held no expression at all, something that frightened her more than anything else.
He said, “We have to tell them what you are. I have to. These people on this world are terrified and if this planet, which has been civilized for so long, can be thrown into such furor before the Federation even arrives, our cause is lost. We need them to fight. I need you to let them know we can.”
“You mean I can.” Her breath lifted her chest. She wanted to touch him. To reach out and hold him, to be held by him, but they had come to this, finally.
She was the weapon that would end this war. That would save this universe. And he was the one who would use her.
Could she still love and want him after that knowing that once he did, she would be sent back to Tralam?
She did not know.
She had not yet told him the rest of it though, and that alone told her that she still did not trust him.
She said, “I know. I will talk to them. Or better yet, I will show them.”
He swallowed hard. “You don’t have to do this. We can fight them back without you. All I need is for you to give them hope.”
His words gave her hope. Not hope that she would not have to do that thing that the weapon had been made for, the complete destruction of an enemy, but hope that they might have something.
That they might have had something.
She would be the weapon and the weapon belonged in Tralam. He had taken her from that place, yes, but that secret that she was keeping from him was the one thing that would make sure she was sent back to that prison, and she had no idea what she would find there when she arrived.
What she did know was that she had no idea if he would ever be able to find her again once she left his side, and if he did, if it would be too late for the thing that had started between them to thrive and have the chance it deserved.
The man seated at a comer panel said, “Whatever you are going to do, do it. They’re setting the street ablaze now, the fuckers. It’s like they want to kill us all before the Federation arrives in the hopes that they will somehow escape the larger pain.”
Lornia stepped forward. Their eyes locked. Drake looked away first. His voice was gruff. “Lornia, I will protect you.”
He could not protect her.
Nothing could protect her.
Lornia stepped to the commers. The people working the commers zoomed in on her face and form. She swallowed hard and then lifted her head.
She began to speak. “My name is Lornia. I’m an Eldren. What you call a Speaker. I have come from behind the door to help you defeat the scourge known as the Federation.”
Then she let the weapon take over.
Her skin retreated. Her eyes got larger and more luminous. The chambers of her heart came into view, skipping and whirling. She intoned, “I will kill those who you fear, but I must ask you to stop killing each other. If you wish my protection, then you must show me that you are worth saving. What I saw in your streets does not make me want to help you. All I see is cowardice and death. Is that worth saving?”
Drake drew close to the commers. Lornia watched as he did. The people out on the streets listening to her words had gone still. The looters had stopped breaking windows. Some dropped the things that they were carrying to the street and looked about themselves with confusion and clarity warring for dominance on their faces.
Lornia spoke again. “I know sacrifice. To do what must be done, I must sacrifice myself. For you. I do not know you. I do not trust you. I have no reason to do it other than the fact that I am a weapon built to do just that. My sacrifice will save you. But I will not do that, give my life for yours, if I feel that yours are not worth saving.”
She turned and walked out of the view of the commers.
Silence filled the room.
Then one of the commers spoke in a high and thin voice. “Oh my God. It’s them. The Federation, and they’re bombing the city!”
Lornia turned to see ships crowding the sky. The people in the streets began to try to flee, but it was too late. Bombs dropped everywhere, and people died.
Rage bloomed in her heart as she watched that happen.
