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

“We’re not tying you down,” Elon said firmly. “It was my fault. I fell asleep. If I had been awake to see you change, I could have brought you back like I did just now.”

“We can’t risk it,” Arun said, shaking her head. “I won’t be the cause for Legion taking another life.”

“Listen,” I said, interrupting the brother-sister feud. “You two need to figure that out on your own. I have news.”

I told them everything about the images on Jezra’s data pad, finding the Rung in our walls, the way we captured him, and the white flag he had come to offer. When I was done, Arun and Elon stared at me, digesting the information. Then they looked at each other, almost as though they were silently coming to consensus before speaking.

“The Rung could be lying,” Arun pointed out. “The only real proof we have at all are the images Jezra captured. This could all be an elaborate ruse to get us out of our walls and into the open.”

“I don’t think so,” Elon said, shaking his head in disagreement. “Apart from the images Jezra captured is the fact that this Rung risked his own life to bring us the news. He has to know we wouldn’t have accepted him willingly. He put himself in great danger to come here. At any point, we might have killed him.”

“He could have killed me,” I pointed out. “Almost did when he took off the way he did. The bottom line is that we won’t know for sure unless someone goes with him and reports back.”

Elon and Arun both looked at me as if I’d lost my mind.

“You’ve been through so much already,” Elon said with a grimace. “I can’t ask you to go with him.”

“We’ve all been through a lot,” I said, nodding to Arun. “And you don’t have to ask because I’m volunteering. Maybe I’ve been hanging around Jezra and Lou too much, but I’m starting to believe that maybe I am here for a reason. I have a very unique set of skills that seem to get me through most situations. Let me go with this Rung. If he’s telling the truth, I’ll report back, and we’ll have the way to kill Legion.”

“And if not?” Arun asked. “If he’s lying and this is a trap?”

“Then he gets one of us instead of all of us,” I said, shrugging and spreading my hands palms up in a “whatever” gesture. “We can’t afford not to explore the few options we have at this point.”

Arun gave a long sigh, too tired to argue.

Elon, on the other hand, still had some fire left in him. “You’re not going alone,” he said so definitively that I understood at that moment he would fight me the whole way on this one. “We’ll ask for volunteers from those we know we can trust. A few are better than one. Even if it’s just a handful to cover your back.”

I opened my mouth to argue but didn’t get any words out before Arun interrupted me again. “Save your breath,” she said, exhausted. “You know well enough he’s not going to give in.”

Elon nodded along with his sister as if to punctuate her statement. I looked from sister to brother and back to the sister again, then I raised one side of my mouth in a half-smile.

“Elon, if I could have a moment alone with Dean, while I’m still in my right mind?” Arun asked, looking over to her brother with questioning eyes. “It won’t take more than a few moments.”

Elon looked unsure at first then regarded his sister with a wistful smile. “Okay, I’ll be right outside if you need me.”

“Thank you,” Arun said, smiling weakly but reassuringly at him.

Elon passed me with a tilt of his chin and left the interior of the Orion.

I looked around at the metal walls and ceiling of this section of Arun’s new home. Memories of the magnificent seed ship now brought to ruin poked at my mind. Thinking too hard about this situation we were in and how it occurred could bring on madness akin to Legion’s possession of hapless individuals, so I avoided those too-dark thoughts.

“I need you to do something for me if I don’t make it,” Arun said, pulling me from my thoughts. “Before you go on a rant about how I shouldn’t think like that and be positive, you can save it.”

“I wasn’t going to say that at all,” I said, going over to the side of her bed and giving her a sad smile. “I know you don’t want that.” It was only a partial lie. It was on the tip of my tongue to do as she’d said, but I stopped myself. She didn’t need it.

“Thank you,” Arun said, running her right hand under her sheet. She came back with two folded pieces of paper. “I have a note for my brother and another for Ricky. If I’m not able to fight off the Legend virus, I want you to kill me and give them these notes.”

My stomach clenched in my gut at the same time my mouth went dry. I had done my fair share of killing people infected by the Legion virus, but I hadn’t known any of them. Maybe I was a bad person for thinking that taking someone’s life I did know was worse than a stranger’s, but that was how I felt.

Could you really kill her? I asked myself. Could you really put Arun down for the count if she couldn’t fight the virus’ infection?

“It shouldn’t be Ricky or Elon.” Arun cleared her throat, blinking back tears. “They’re not strong in the same way you are, Dean. I hate to ask anyone for this favor, but you’re one of the few options I have. I’ll ask Stacy if you say no.”

I stood quietly, thinking over her request. Four little words that were anything but simple ran themselves over