Empire Reborn (Taran Empire Saga Book 1): A Cadicle Space Opera A.K. DuBoff (guided reading books TXT) 📖

Because it is. We’re doing this as an act of desperation to protect you because we’re facing an enemy we have no way to fight. Except, he couldn’t say any of that. “You have nothing to worry about with the Taran Empire,” he said instead. “We’re the good guys in this, I promise you.”

“As a friend, I’ll take your word for it.”

It’s a start. “Thank you. Please try to spread that message to others. We’re going to need all the help we can get.”

CHAPTER 18

News about Earth being brought into the Taran fold had taken over screen time in the news broadcasts, pushing the civil unrest on Duronis and surrounding planets into the background. While the rest of the Alliance was annoyed, Lexi found herself drawn to the message of unity. Unfortunately, that sentiment was in direct opposition to the objectives of the Alliance.

I can’t abandon Melisa. If I don’t look for her, who will? Soon, though, she might be forced to abandon the search in fear for her own safety. When she’d decided to personally investigate the Alliance, she thought they were a small local organization and she’d quickly be able to locate her friend. Then she’d learned the scope of their reach was global, and now the revelation about Magdalena’s leadership had made it clear the Alliance’s network was actually on an interstellar scale. It was too much for her to take on alone.

Worse, now that she had been brought into the Alliance’s planning, she was certain that they wouldn’t let her walk away freely. As much as she didn’t want to go forward, backing out wasn’t an option. I’m in deep shite.

The tense mood around the office had persisted over the past several days, making Lexi wish she could hide out on her bunk and avoid interacting with anyone. She couldn’t un-see the excitement in the eyes of her friends and colleagues when they’d seen the footage of the station’s explosion. Relishing the death of others. It was downright barbaric. What kept threatening to push her over the edge, though, was that she needed to play along. She couldn’t reveal herself as an outsider, so she forced herself to cheer alongside them. Each time it happened, a little bit of her died inside.

Lexi wandered into the lounge room in her continued attempt to keep up appearances. It was where she should be at that hour, having already completed her latest pickup from Niko. The other Alliance members were winding down for the day, enjoying drinks at the tables or lounging while they watched the evening news broadcast.

It only took a few seconds for Oren to spot her after she entered. He beckoned her over to one of the standing-height tables near the door.

“Lexi, just who I was hoping would walk in!” he said. “How did the pickup go today?”

“Nothing to report. Niko is behaving himself,” she replied. Of course, she had left out any mention of going to see him before the explosion in her failed attempt to stop the attack. To her surprise and relief, Niko had also pretended like that had never happened. Perhaps he wasn’t as irredeemable as she would have thought.

Oren picked up a stack of posters printed on plasheets and handed it to her. “Here.”

“What’s this?” she asked.

“For our next round of recruitment efforts. Put them up around the transit station, would you?” Though spoken as a question, it was clearly an order.

“Sure, of course.” Not wanting to seem overly curious, Lexi resisted the temptation to read the poster on the spot. “I’ll get these up tonight.”

“Also, expect another planning session tomorrow. Shena will get you the details.” Oren walked away.

Lexi sighed inwardly. I don’t know how much longer I can keep this up.

She’d been going through the motions for a while, but now the stakes had changed. People had died, and she’d been a part of it. It made her sick.

At least putting up the posters would get her out for a while. She grabbed the thermal stapler they used to affix the plasheets to the sides of buildings and then rushed out of the office before anyone could rope her into another task.

She waited until she was two blocks from the office before ducking into a side alley to read the poster. Her stomach turned over when she saw the text: ‘Join the fight for independence! Use your skills to start a new world free from the oppressive rule of the Central Worlds.’ Beneath the bold header lines was a list of specialist positions in various fields of biology, genetics, chemistry, and engineering.

Since when do we need people like this? The answer was obvious, as much as she didn’t want to admit it to herself. Those people would be very useful in designing and building weapons of war.

Fok! This is even worse than I thought. She was at a loss for what to do. Defeat started to edge in on her mind. The Alliance was already too big and powerful for her to have a reasonable chance of slowing them down, let alone stopping them. Even answering the relatively straightforward question of what had happened to Melisa was looking impossible for her to answer alone.

For now, she had a job to complete before Oren got suspicious. She bundled up the posters, put up her hood and pulled the cowl neck of her shirt over her face, and then resumed her walk toward the transit station.

What was extremely clear was that she shouldn’t offer any resistance if she didn’t want to end up disappeared or dead. She could run, but it would be a last-ditch move, and she would need to be certain she could live with the decision to never come back here. She wasn’t there quite yet.

Nevertheless, her