Jupiter's Sword: Book Two of the Earth Dawning Series by Nick Webb

Author:Nick Webb [Webb, Nick]
Language: eng
Format: azw3, epub
Published: 2017-08-28T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Thirty

Asteroid Belt

Vesta Station

Daughters of Ascension headquarters

Walker’s lips pressed together, and her nose flared. There was a sudden tension in the set of her head, and guilt behind her eyes as she broke eye contact with Ka’sagra. It was only a moment before her face cleared, however. Someone would have had to be watching very carefully to see it.

Nhean had been watching very carefully. He marked the way Walker marshaled her thoughts, and he reminded himself that emotion was very different from motivation. So she felt guilty and tense when asked that question. It might only mean that she wanted Ka'sagra and all of her kind dead, and did not want to say as much out loud. It might still mean nothing.

His fears might be entirely unfounded.

“I only want humanity to be free,” she said finally. She would meet no one’s eyes, focusing instead on a point above Ka'sagra's head.

Ka'sagra waited for a long moment, clearly expecting more, but Walker said nothing else.

“And what does ‘free’ mean?” Ka'sagra asked finally. She did not prompt the admiral. She offered nothing but the question.

“It means we will no longer be caged by despair and poverty.”

Nhean looked over in new interest. There was hope in these words. It was almost a match for Ka'sagra's language.

“The Daughters of Ascension strive for the same,” Ka'sagra remarked.

Walker’s eyes flared with anger at that. “We will never be free while we rely on you.”

Parees cast a worried glance at Nhean. She’s ruining everything, his gaze said.

Nhean gave a tiny shake of his head. Don’t interrupt. He did not want to remind either Walker or Ka'sagra that they were being watched.

If Parees was worried that Ka'sagra would send them away, he need not have been. The priestess went to a chair behind the altar and sat, eyes fixed on Walker. There was a small smile on her lips.

“An interesting sentiment.” She considered it. “We would say … that my kind cannot be free, either, while we bind you to this life. We, too, are caged.”

“What do you know of being caged?” Walker whispered. “You grew up on Earth. You had food to eat and air to breathe, and you needed to rely on no one for that. You kept humans within sight of the planet, binding their hopes into the shape of what they had lost. You made Earth … the prize they could never win.” Her voice was thick with hatred.

Nhean looked away, fighting for calm.

“Grew up on Earth? My sweet child.” Ka’sagra smiled. “I am over three hundred of your solar years old.”

“I watched my kind begging for scraps.” Walker interrupted, ignoring the alien’s explanation. She was shaking now, her tiny frame rigid. “You handed them food, and they asked you about Earth. They asked what the sky was like. They asked about sunlight. That was the torture you inflicted on them by your very presence. We were locked here, we were denied anything that might have given us a better life and you tried to half-fill our bellies and call it a kindness.

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