Alien General's Fated (Brion Brides 5)(20)

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

Aria



It hurt, to be proven right.

Aria had tried so hard to deny the fact that the union  's council was bringing everything down upon itself. Even the ones who weren't actively trying to aid the enemy were doing it by letting the others tie Ryden's hands.

She remembered how impossible it had been to even get to talk to the moon's security chief. And now it might be too late. She hoped Ryden had a plan for the incoming Clayor armies, already reported to be days away, maybe hours.

Because Ilotra sure as hell didn't.

It bothered her. She hadn't thought of herself as the bright-eyed naïve girl, but apparently that's what she was. Not naïve about the general, not that. Aria had known what he was from the start. About the council and the entire galaxy.

She couldn't believe she'd thought that in the union  , there might be an actual purpose for her. Some way to put her knowledge to work for the benefit of all. It only ended up getting her bumped down to meaningless tasks which she—as it turns out—didn't even have to do.

The next time she saw Sota, she'd give that guy a piece of her mind. If her trial run should have been over a while ago, there would be hell to pay.

But all her worries seemed to be of little importance when she suddenly found that she'd been left in the great hall alone with the general.

Immediately, she backed away. The room seemed so weird now, big and empty, her footsteps echoing in the room where the fate of the galaxy was decided. She knew Ryden was in big trouble for what he'd done, but she believed he was doing it for the union  ’s sake. With no way to know who the traitors were, it was better to make sure that the council members had no chance to mess anything else up.

Ryden followed her with slow, measured steps. His eyes were alight with desire; Aria couldn't mistake that look for anything else. It was the same as in her rooms, but she felt considerably less sure about her feelings now. The general was as relentless with her as he was with the fortress. She got the sense they were both being worn down.

A guy like that was probably not used to having to wear a girl down. Her eyes wandered over his perfect form, from his wide shoulders to the powerful build of his body. Again and again, her eyes drifted back to his face, mesmerized by his eyes and the fire in them.

She'd missed him, but she wasn't sure if it was her talking or the frantic rescue that made her weaken. But she knew that she needed to make up her mind really fast, because there was no doubt in her mind Ryden was about to suggest it again, one way or another.

Aria was saved by a com link, regretting it the second when the general's face dropped.

"Stay here," he ordered. "There has been an attack."

He stopped then, suddenly, listening to the link intently, the frown deepening on his brow. Aria saw him grit his teeth in fury.#p#分页标题#e#

"She's the only one now?" he asked, not from her.

Aria wondered if they were talking about her. In the next moment, when Ryden looked at her with worry, she had her answer.

"Are you absolutely sure?" he growled. "How could they have gotten all of them?"

The general listened to the answer before taking a deep breath.

"Aria," he said. "You know how to operate the defense systems of Ilotra?"

That was a strange question.

"I..." she stuttered for a moment. "Yes. Most of them, if need be. But a lot of the controls are a bit odd here, I'd have to read up and—"

"The shield," Ryden said hurriedly. "Do you know how to turn on the bubble?"

Aria wasn't sure she liked the direction the conversation was taking. She nodded hesitantly.

"I think so," she said.

The general was looking at her seriously. "You need to be sure, Aria. Can you turn on the shield?"

"Yes," she assured him. "What happened, General? I, yes, I could handle the controls, but why would I? Did something happen to Captain Algos?"

Ryden seethed with fury.

"We angered the hive mind," he said then. "It got its revenge. Algos is dead, so is all of his crew. So are practically all of those who worked in the command center, both the central one and the one regulating the shield. The hive mind threw all it had into this. It's only you now. You and a few rookies who have the basic ideas of how to work one console."

Time seemed to slow down for Aria. Her head started to spin. It couldn't possibly be happening to her.

Well, you wanted to be important, her mind said. You wanted to be needed.



***



The way to the command center had changed drastically. Bodies littered the ground everywhere, mostly Clayors, with some Brion warriors and crew members scattered around. Aria walked on, thinking that there were so many. Ryden had to be right; there was no way the hive mind didn't use almost all it had.

The smell was nauseating, unshakable. Aria held a hand before her mouth, but it still reached her, rotten, repulsive. The crews were already hard at work trying to clean it all up, but the smell would be more difficult to get out. Nothing quite as foul as a dead Clayor, unless there were hundreds of them.

Ryden walked beside her, his face twisted by fury. She knew he hated it. The enemy had waited until he and most of his warriors were cleaning out the council and then attacked. Even if they'd been alerted in time, there was no way they'd have made much of a difference. Ilotra was vast and running only helped so much. Not even the inner transportation lines would have done much difference.

She noticed other warriors with them too. Ryden had spoken very fast to them in Brionese, but Aria had caught some words and figured out the rest. After all, it was pretty logical that with one hour, she'd become the most valuable person there.

The hive mind had exhausted itself with the massacre, but the general had been right. Almost nothing remained in its wake. The Clayors had just killed, killed, killed. The command center had been hit the hardest, but not only. Many engineers, and people who manned the weapons were dead too. It seemed to Aria that the hive mind had just lashed out, tried to get as many as it could.

She was horrified, but she had an impossible task to conquer.

What she'd told Ryden was true. She did theoretically know how all the stuff worked, but she'd barely even been allowed to touch it up to this point. Not to mention that the looming knowledge of being the only one with any idea at all made the pit of her stomach ice over.

Still, Aria would not let it get to her. Ryden had comforted her in saying she wasn't suddenly tasked with the entire fortress's defenses. While the others might not have had the knowledge of the particular layouts, there were plenty of very perceptive and wise species on the moon. Ryden was bringing down his own technicians too, but Aria would have to show them the basics.

She had hoped against hope that it wouldn't be too bad, but the command center was in complete disarray. She ignored the dire need to sleep and got to work, finding the most apt people to aid her and worked from there.

She lost Ryden from her side somewhere in the process, being left with an impressive armed guard in his stead. The screens showed the general moving around on Ilotra, whenever Aria had the moment to spare them a look. He seemed to be everywhere at once, pushing his warriors harder than ever before to make sure all of the Clayor hideouts were found. He was also telling them about the Host.#p#分页标题#e#

Aria hadn't wanted to believe that, but then she remembered the presence she'd felt. When she asked the general about it, he'd looked positively ready to kill and confirmed that she had indeed met the Host. The look in his eyes made it very clear to Aria how close she'd been to dying in that moment.

"You should never have met him," the general growled, a dark look in his eyes.

Aria was ready to apologize when Ryden shook his head.

"No," he said. "I meant I never should have let you be taken to him."

She had no words with which to answer that, but Ryden didn't seem to expect any. The general left her to get Ilotra up and running again. And Aria kept feeling a terrible sense of loneliness every time he went away that she'd never felt before. It was like a part of her was missing and only his presence filled the void.

She worked until she was ready to fall asleep standing. Some functionality was restored. Every console had someone behind it who basically knew what they were doing, as long as they remained in their fixed position. Aria wondered if that was what Ryden felt like all the time, overseeing something so huge that it could scarcely be comprehended.

A warrior who had been following her the entire day approached her. Joya was a female warrior, tall and stern. It amused Aria a bit, since a part of her was sure the general hadn't appointed her a male warrior because he didn't want her around other men.

She'd noticed that when she spoke to a man, Ryden's eyes narrowed. It was endearing, in a way. It was also entirely frustrating, but that was another matter completely.

"Yes, Joya?" she asked, trying to fight back a yawn and failing.

"You should sleep," the warrior said.

Oh, sleep. Sleep sounds nice. I'll sleep when I'm dead.

Out loud, Aria said: "I can't. There is still so much to do."

"If you're this tired, you're doing more harm than good."

Joya's bedside manner could have been better, Aria figured, but she couldn't deny the warrior had a point. Considering what was at stake, she couldn't allow mistakes. Perhaps a little rest might do her good?