Orion Colony Complete Series Boxed Set J.N. Chaney (books for new readers .txt) 📖

I said to John. “I know it doesn’t mean much, but it’s nice to have another gladiator in this mess.”

“If it makes you feel better, I didn’t really like you either,” John said with a lopsided grin. His face suddenly turned sober as he remembered something. “I uh—I know it was kept quiet in the media, but in the circuit, amongst the other gladiators, I know why you retired. I’m sorry.”

“Yeah, yeah, me too,” I said, faced once again with the memory of my past. “Well hey, I gotta get going, but I’ll see you around.”

“Anytime you want to use my little area to train, open invitation,” John said, rising to his feet.

“I’ll take you up on that,” I said. “It’s been too long.”

“Doesn’t seem like you’ve lost much,” John said. “That was quite a clinic you put on last week.”

“Yeah, John, I guess old habits die hard,” I said.

John nodded. “My friends call me JB.”

“See you around, JB,” I said. I left reminding myself to try being nicer to people I didn’t know. I had written JB off the first time I met him and then again at the gate yesterday. Now after taking even a few minutes getting to know him, he wasn’t that bad of a guy after all.

I made my way to the front gate, where a pair of suits recognized me and allowed me to exit. The gate was reinforced with a steel panel as well as two extra anchors that secured it to the rest of the wall. It wasn’t exactly impenetrable, but it was twice as strong as before.

The chill morning air encouraged me to jog the rest of the way around the wall and make my way east behind the Orion. I stopped when I reached the hill, hearing barking coming from behind me.

Mutt galloped to my side and gave me dirty look.

“What?” I said. “I didn’t know if you wanted to come on this one. Remember what happened last time?”

Mutt huffed out of his mouth. He kept pace with me, nose to the ground, sniffing all around him.

We reached the open mountain doors leading into the chamber where we first met Tong. The alien was there waiting for us. His reptilian face broke into a wide grin when he saw Mutt.

Tong knelt down on the ground with his mouth open in a surprised and delighted smile.

I heard Mutt growl beside me.

“Easy, boy,” I said. “He’s a friend.”

“Great Dawn,” Tong said, looking at me and then Mutt. “Is this your companion? I’ve never seen a companion such as this.”

“Dean, remember?” I asked. “Not Great Dawn. Just call me Dean.”

“Dean,” Tong repeated. “Is this your companion?”

“He’s an animal—a dog named Mutt,” I said, exchanging looks with the pup. “I guess he’s a companion. I’d call him a pet, but he found me and pretty much takes care of himself.”

“Hello, companion Mutt,” Tong said, waving his three-fingered hand. Tong looked at me, stopping his wave in mid-action. “Am I performing the wave action appropriately, Dean? Iris instructed me. This is the way humans say hello?”

“Yeah, that’s great,” I said, scratching at the underside of my jaw. “Did Iris tell you about our plan? To head out this morning?”

“Yes, she did, and I have a few concerns,” Tong said, still waving his hand at Mutt and now at me.

“You can stop waving now,” I told him. “We just do like two or three waves and that’s it.”

“Oh, how interesting,” Tong said, blinking rapidly. “I have so much still to learn.”

“Don’t worry about it; even some humans don’t have stuff like this nailed down. We call those people awkward,” I said. “But that doesn’t matter right now. What concerns do you have with our plan?”

“Well, to begin with, there is no need to secure the communication section of your colony ship.”

“Why’s that?” I asked.

“My own people have a communication installation set inside where we are headed. Also, there is no one to communicate with.” Tong shrugged his slender shoulders. “My species is very advanced. We’ve sent out signals trying to communicate with any other life in the galaxy and there has never been any response.”

“Did your people ever construct ships to go out and explore?” I asked.

“Never,” Tong said with a look of concern. “The idea had been brought up before. We sent out unmanned crafts, but our resources were always better spent elsewhere, and then the war broke out with the Rung faction. After that, we were locked in a civil war.”

“You said you weren’t able to defeat Legion, so you went into hiding,” I said listing off the many questions I wanted to ask Tong. “What makes you think we will be able to defeat it now?”

“Because your people are the Dawn foretold of in prophecy,” Tong answered with another of his wide smiles.

“Right, I should have seen that one coming,” I said. “You have weapons and supplies in that underground base where your people sleep?”

“Oh, yes, many,” Tong said with a nod.

“All right, I guess we have a plan, then. We’ll swing by to see what happened to our expedition team and then head down to your installation,” I said.

“Yes, I am eager to be off.” Tong opened his arms to take in the large chamber. “I am also eager to meet more humans. Iris tells me you are such an interesting people. I want to know more about your digestive system, and your inability to see in the dark truly baffles me.”

“Yeah, well you can ask someone else about their digestive system,” I told Tong. “I—”

“We’re loading the crawler now,” Arun said into my earpiece, cutting me off. “Is Tong ready?”

“Yeah, we’re ready,” I said, answering Arun’s question. “Tong has a few questions for you about your digestive tract.”

Tong looked at me, nodding emphatically.

“Riiiiight,” Arun said. “We’ll be there soon.”

“They’re on their way,” I told the alien. “I’m going to wait for them outside. Gather whatever you need and come join me.”

Tong nodded.

I traveled back up the slightly inclined tunnel that led