Chapter 8
TRUO SEEDUON, SECOND COMMAND
A week had passed since I had been with the human female Vera, making love to her, as she called it for many hours in the night. I had not seen her since, but I had waited for her every night, just in case. She never came to me. It was just as well because it was very risky and I did not want her to get caught. I could not allow her to be in any more danger than she already was with Cyro simply to indulge myself.
I had mated with her, and she had saved my life, extending it beyond the 22-year cycle because of it. But this was not why I did it; I did it because I truly desired her. I cared for her, and my feelings for her grew stronger by the moment. I found myself thinking that I would give up my entire life in order to pull her out of the grasp of Cyro. I was willing to give it all up for her, to save her. I wanted her to be happy.
But the week without her was torture. My body and my mind desired her, desired her company, desired her kisses, desired to hear her voice. I thought about her often, and it made me want to go through with this plan to unseat Cyro from the leadership even more. Then I could truly protect her.
"You are being summoned by Great Leader Cyro,” a warrior said to me as I was deep in thought about Vera, sitting on a low border wall of the fortress.
"He has summoned me? Why?” I asked him.
"It was not told to me other than to summon you to his quarters,” he said.
"I am on my way now,” I said as I got up and began to walk toward Cyro’s quarters. I was paranoid and filled with anxiety. Did he know about Vera and I? Did he know that I was having an affair with her? Did he know about my plans to overthrow him? There were many secrets that I was hiding, and now I thought that he had exposed one or all of those secrets. Only just a few months before, if Cyro summoned me, I would not think anything of it. I was the second in command after all, and most of his leadership plans went through me for advice and execution. I did all the hard work. Meeting with him was a constant part of my daily existence being the second in command, so being summoned by him should not have made me anxious. But it was because of the secrets that I now held that I was paranoid and on edge more than ever.
"We have not met for some time now," Cyro said as I walked into his meeting rooms.
"Yes, the last we met was for plans to capture more human females for the high-ranking warriors on this asteroid, and another for you since yours disappoints you, as you put it,” I said to him.
He narrowed his eyes suspiciously at me and said, “Yes, that is still true, though I think she might be coming around. She will learn to love me as human females have since we began abducting them. It just takes time and the right motivation."
"Yes, as you say,” I said, agreeing with him because I had no other choice.
"But I have summoned you here on another matter, not about human females,” he said to me.
My stomach tightened, he was on to us. He had found out our plan and he was about to arrest me. It had to be.
"What do you know of the Corillion Sitione?” he asked.
Shit. It wasn't Jin who was betraying us like I thought it would be. Instead, it was Sitione. Sitione had been confident and had not shown any fear. Now he must have told Cyro everything that we were planning.
"I know as much as any other Corillion on this asteroid. He is a high-ranking warrior in charge of overseeing the structural systems of the fortress. A very intelligent alien warrior," I said.
"Yes, he is very intelligent, and because of that, very dangerous,” he said.
"What do you mean?” I asked. I thought he was about to tell me that Sitione had betrayed me and had told him about my plan to unseat him. But that did not seem to be the case.
"Sitione has asked to journey to the High Council to ask permissions on some structural plans for the fortress that would make it a grander port and bigger base for a warrior army to defend us from Earth,” Cyro said.
"That is a good idea as far as I'm concerned. We could never have too big of an army or too good of a port, but why is this a problem as you see it?” I asked trying to lie about the fact that I knew the real reason he wanted to go to the High Council. But why had Sitione done this without asking me first? I was the one that was going to go to the High Council and set the plans in motion to unseat Cyro; why did Sitione want to go to the High Council on his own?
"It is a problem because I do not trust him. It is very rare that a Corillion goes to the High Council to speak on such matters. But because it involves making our army larger, it does require permission from the High Council, but usually the leader is the one to go to the High Council to discuss such things, not someone with Sitione’s rank. Therefore I am suspicious. Why would he not simply ask me to go to the High Council on his behalf? It is very suspicious, and I do not trust it, or trust him. He is up to something,” he said.
"I understand your suspicion, Great Leader. How may I assist you in this matter?” I asked, knowing that I should be the one assigned to this because anyone else could find out the truth, that Sitione and I were working together.
"Follow Sitione. Look into the structural plans and see if that is the real reason that he wants to go to the High Council. If it is the real reason, then you shall be the one to take him to the council. Do not let him out of your sight," he said.
"Yes, Great Leader. I understand. Will that be all for this meeting?” I asked, bowing my head to him.
"Yes, that is all,” he said.
I bowed once more before I left the rooms. I was relieved that he did not know of my secrets, that I had been with Vera or that I plotted to overthrow him. But it was not all safe. He was onto Sitione, and that meant that he was one step closer to finding out my plans to overthrow him. I was lucky that he asked me to look into Sitione.
I made my way across the fortress directly to the rooms of Sitione. "Sitione, I am to see these new structural plans of yours that you have discussed with Cyro,” I said at the entrance to his rooms so that the warriors standing guard in the hall could hear.
"Truo, if you wish to see them, the access is yours. Please allow me to show you,” Sitione said, giving me a look as though he understood what was going on. “Close the door so that we may go over them in quiet,” he said as he pulled blueprints off the wall and onto the tables.
I stepped inside and closed the door behind me. Now we were alone in the room, and I moved over to him and whispered, “Cyro told me of your request to go to the high council. It has made him very suspicious, and he has assigned me to watch over you. Why would you do such a thing that was not in our plans? We have not discussed it yet,” I said to him quietly.
"I had to do something. I did not think he would find it suspicious and I would be able to plead the case of allowing you to become the leader over Cyro to the High Council. This way he would not suspect it from you if you went,” he said.
"That is a very risky move, Sitione. If he had not assigned me to look into this matter, then he would've assigned someone else who would've been following you. This other warrior would have discovered our meetings. It is a very risky move,” I said, shaking my head in disappointment of his actions.
"But luck is on our side. He did assign you, and therefore we are in the clear. What did he say about the matter?” he asked with a grin.
"He asked me to look into your plans to see if they are real. If they are not, then I am to report to him as much. If they are real, then he wants me to accompany you to the High Council to make sure that is what you were meeting about," I said to him.
"That is perfect!” he shouted.
"Keep your voice down,” I said quieting him down.
"That is perfect,” he said in a whisper. “Do you not see he has given us permission to go to the High Council together? We do not have to do it in secret. Once we are there, it will be too late after he discovers the real reason. This is good for us,” Sitione said.
"Yes, it seems that way. But I do not trust it. There is something wrong here. Have you spoken to Jin? Perhaps this is his doing and Cyro is setting us up. Why just the two of us? It seems too perfect. I must look into this. For now, make sure that you have real blueprints for what you said that you wanted to do to the fortress,” I said to him.
"But I do. I do have those plans, and they are real. But they are not plans for the fortress under the leadership of Cyro. They are the plans to make the fortress great under the leadership of Truo Seeduon,” he said proudly.
"Thank you, my warrior brother, for believing in me and my leadership. I will not let you down. But first, let us see to this matter. We must go through the motions as if you are going to see the High Council to speak about the fortress,” I said.
"I understand. I will get everything ready," he said.
"For now, say nothing to Jin, and we no longer meet underneath the fortress; it is too risky as we do not know for sure if he has assigned another to follow you besides myself,” I said to him.
"I understand. I will do nothing but go to my chambers, these workrooms, and the feasting hall. I will do nothing out of the ordinary," he said.
"That is good. I will do the same,” I said to him. As soon as I said it, I realized that would mean not waiting for Vera in the middle of the night. I didn't know if I could do that, but I did not have a choice.
"Wait to hear from me. You will see me often trailing you around the fortress to make it look as though I am spying on you as Cyro wishes, just to warn you.”
"I will be just as boring as ever to follow and spy on. Now go and do what you must do to get ready as well. Soon we will be in front of the High Council; soon you will be leader” he smiled.
I smiled back and left him to his work. If this truly was the case, that Sitione and I were going to be able to leave to the High Council, then I could not leave Vera with Cyro. If the High Council decided to unseat Cyro after we met with them, then there would be complete chaos at the fortress while the transition of power took place.
I did not know what Cyro would do to Vera. He would find fault with her for not producing offspring for him. He would blame her viciously, and out of his rage, he would kill her. Out of his shame, he would make an example of her. No, I could not leave Vera behind when Sitione and I went to see the High Council. But I did not know how I could arrange for her to go in secret. It was too complex to plan. If she did not want to go, then I would have to take her by force, and I would be no better than Cyro for doing so.
She would not understand the danger that she would be in if she would stay. But standing in front of the council, she could show them that she was not pregnant, then that would be proof enough that, although she had been with him for one month, he could not produce offspring.
Vera was the key! Why did I not think of that before? Not only would it be a reason to take Vera with me, but it would actually help in overthrowing Cyro. It was perfect. Now I just had to figure out how to get Vera on the ship with us without Cyro knowing, until we were too far for him to catch up with us. As soon as he realized she was missing, he would come for us. It would be dangerous, but it would be too late we would be the first to reach the High Council.
I would have to warn her, but how? It was too dangerous for her to know about overthrowing Cyro. The less that she knew, the better. I did not want to put her in unnecessary danger because she was already in so much to begin with. I would have to come up with a plan to get her out of the fortress and onto our ship without anyone knowing. I did not know how much longer she was playing sick. It would be a good cover because no one would check in on her if they believed that she was still sick, most of all Cyro. But if she had already told him that she was better, then he would be visiting her, and bedding her. That last part made me sick and angry with rage. I had to get her out of there.