Supremacy's Outlaw: A Space Opera Thriller Series (Insurgency Saga Book 3) T.E. Bakutis (read my book .txt) 📖

plumbing system down here. As they walked, they passed more makeshift hospital rooms like the one Jan had just exited.

This place seemed a bit too big for a hideout. It seemed a lot more like a home base. Which, if it was the Truthers’ home base, meant it was even more vital Jan find his friends and escape before the Truthers learned what he truly thought of them. If they had even the slightest suspicion Jan wasn’t fully on board with their cause, they’d probably incinerate him.

A tall man in a pale white jumpsuit intercepted them once they turned a corner. He had dark brown hair and a handsome chin. “The command pit’s the other way.” His voice marked him as the same nurse who had helped Jan earlier.

“Right, I know.” Rafe winced. “Jan, uh, he ...”

“I smell terrible,” Jan said, making himself look appropriately embarrassed. “I’ve been wearing these clothes for days.” The tag on the man’s right breast read “Hanson,” and that tag was definitely military. “In the grips of those horrific torture nanos, I may have ... soiled myself.”

“Oh!” Hanson the dark-haired nurse blinked. “That’s ... I’m sorry.”

Time to lay it on thick. “Please don’t think I’m so foolish that I don’t know to whom I owe my life.” Jan smiled as warmly as he could. “And please don’t assume I don’t know who you are.”

Hanson’s stance stiffened.

“You True Sons have done more for Ceto than every last self-serving official in our so-called government,” Jan said, letting his disgust for the Truther cause flavor his words. “I’ve only been back on Ceto a few days, but I’ve been here long enough to see how much things have changed since we ran off the Supremacy.”

Hanson watched him cautiously. “And what’s changed?”

“They have forgotten what we bled for.” Jan visibly clenched his fists. “They have forgotten what those vatborn assholes did to us for ten years. When I first heard that Ceto had finally thrown off the oppressor’s yoke, I was overjoyed by the revelation. At last, we were free!”

Jan focused on how pissed off he’d been about Fatima’s betrayal. “Soon after I returned, I learned the truth. No trials. No war crime tribunals. No reparations, and not one fucking vatborn politician held responsible.” He stepped forward. “Our whole puppet government just decided to let it all slide.”

Hanson’s breathing quickened. “It’s not right.”

“It’s unforgivable.” Jan took Hanson’s pale hand in both of his own, rubbing Hanson’s hand with his thumb. “You must know that the CSD, puppets of the traitor government, hunt me even now. Yet you took me in and helped me despite the danger.”

“Yeah,” Hanson breathed. “We did do that.”

“Your brave actions are all I need to know who my true allies are in this new world. I am but a simple smuggler, but if there is anything I can do for those to whom I owe my life, for the True Sons of Ceto, you have but to name it.”

“Oh?” Hanson was positively blushing now. “Well, I, uh ... I mean, I’m just a nurse ...”

“And very good at nursing,” Jan assured him.

“But I’m sure the Commander will have some ideas,” Hanson added, smiling far too widely.

“I do hope that’s true,” Jan said. He squeezed Hanson’s hand before releasing it. “If you can direct me to somewhere where Rafe and I can get fresh clothes, I’ll be off to thank him myself. I could not bear to face the Commander in soiled clothes. I would never disrespect a great man in such a way.”

“We have a laundry just up the hall,” Hanson said. “We can get you a uniform. I can, uh ... I’ll take you?”

Jan rewarded Hanson with a wide, warm smile. “I’d love that.” He touched the man’s shoulder. “Please. Lead on.”

Hanson strode off with a spring in his step. “This way!”

Jan jerked his head, once, to ensure Rafe kept up, then followed. Hanson led them past rooms filled with everything from sealed ration crates to unsealed munitions crates to racks of rifles. The sight of all that hardware further confirmed this was the Truthers’ home base. If Jan didn’t convince these people he was a Truther as well, he would be six kinds of dead.

“Hey, Jan,” Rafe whispered as they walked. “You really believe all that stuff you said?”

Jan beamed Rafe’s way, keeping up the act. “You don’t?”

“No, I do!” Rafe grinned. “I just didn’t think you did!”

It took all Jan’s years of lying to keep his jaw from dropping. Rafe believed in the Truther cause? Rafe was a Truther, and that made him more insane than normal.

Jan smiled and looked ahead. He’s not under duress. He’s working for them.

“I was as shocked as you after the armistice,” Rafe said as they walked, following Hanson. “When the government just said it was okay. I mean, how could it be okay? The Supremacy executed hundreds of innocent civilians during their occupation. They threw people into secret prisons and tortured them for years. That’s not right, and we’re just gonna let those vatborn dickheads get away with it?”

We’re letting them get away with it, Jan wanted to scream, because those “vatborn dickheads” have enough firepower to glass Duskdale with a single interplanetary slug. The Phorcys military could wipe our entire population off the map in a week. Also, murdering random Advanced civilians solves nothing.

The Truthers weren’t wrong that Ceto’s current government had, after the armistice, technically let the Supremacy get away with war crimes. They weren’t wrong about that one, singular thing. Yet the Truthers also refused to acknowledge that starting another war with the Supremacy was