Valkyrie Hunter
Chapter 21

We walked through the forest of a while. It was peaceful here without a constant search for danger. Thirika suddenly halted I stopped and looked at her.

“What happened after the tunnel?” she asked me directly.

I wondered why she has decided to ask me that now. I considered her words. Too many people knew about the Keepers. But I trusted Thirika I had to tell her.

“What I’m about to tell you tell no one else!” I warned her. “Too many know as it is?”

“You have my word on that,” Thirika declared.

I trusted her. “What I didn’t tell you was that the tunnel collapsed with me on the wrong side of it. I was injured.” I continued finding it hard to put into words what I felt about being trapped. I described my finding the green light and trailing it to a door. A door that was not a door and the cavern filled with cabinets of rods. Then of how I found a number of hexagonal columns and the one that lit up. Then I told Thirika about Mouse and how at first she appeared as a green hologram. “She fixed my leg and gave me food and water.” I hesitated thinking how I put on those nanobots thinking they were ordinary clothes to find the truth was worse than I could have ever imagined.

“A hologram can do that?”

“Not as such it was the computer.” I told her how Mouse at first pantomimed her actions.

“Computer?” For a moment Thirika looked horrified. But it wasn’t what I thought it was. “Mother, I’m becoming you. I have to stop repeating your words.”

If what I had been saying wasn’t so traumatic for me I would have laughed at her.

My next words weren’t so amusing as I continued my tale. I kept it precise as if I was in a courtroom and on the stand. I explained the exoskeleton and the computer, which forced me to work for it. “If I hadn’t the computer would have exploded taking half of Saros with it.”

“You certain of that?” Thirika queried.

“Mouse confirmed it.”

I saw her lips twitch, I half expected her ask about Mouse. I knew she wanted to but she restrained herself. “Go on,” she said.

“When Mouse was more substantial we discovered the reason the computer was on a downward loop to destruction.” I carried on when Thirika hadn’t commented. “I found a silver cube. It was put there by someone she called a Corrupted.”

“About the size of your fist?”

I glanced her surprised. “Yes? How did you know that?”

“It’s not the first time someone has encountered a Rhosani control device.”

“Mouse called them the Rho’xan?”

“The ancient name of the Rhosani before they made the T’Arni slaves.”

I went cold inside at the thought. The Rhosani had been close to invading but the Alliance had turned them back, According to the Curator they were still around. The trouble is I believed him. I pushed my thoughts away from the way that my mind was going. “One thing you should know when the Elder’s interfered with my DNA they awakened my Keeper DNA.”

“And that does what?” Thirika asked.

“The Keepers used my DNA to remake themselves.” I grimaced. “They all bear my looks to some effect.” I tried to gage Thirika’s reaction but she remained stoic and silent. “I’m not lying?”

“I do believe you,” Thirika finally replied. “I’m just trying to process it.”

Thirika’s sudden chuckle startled me. “Thirika?” I asked anxiously.

“They’re your children.”

I looked at her uncertainly. “I’m not so sure about that?”

“They are and that’s it!” she declared firmly.

I still wasn’t convinced. Well part of me wasn’t yet my logical part agreed with her. “So there it is?” I decided not to tell her about my close contact with the Keepers and that I could call them with my mind. I hadn’t the chance to do that before and I doubted I’d be able to at the present time.

Thirika sighed dramatically. It was her way of telling me that wasn’t the end of things.

“That’s not the end of it, is it?” she asked me carefully.

I looked at her queryingly.

“You haven’t finished your report I expected better of you.”

I panicked for a moment wondering what else I could tell her about the Keepers and not reveal how deep I was with them. I took a chance guessing she just wanted to know what happened next. “I threw the device into the acid lake surrounding the computer.”

Thirika smiled at that. “Not as flamboyant as some of the other methods of destroying Rhosani devices.”

“We fixed the computer and Mouse escorted me out. She gave me a data rod.” I indicated the length stretching my arms out. “About this size.” I dropped my arms. I hadn’t realised how dangerous the rod had been. It had marked me as a Keeper or at least one of their allies. That had been the Guardians’ fault. The rod had been a peace offering. Only Mouse’s interference had stopped them from destroying me. But the Guardians had still tried to make me a weapon to destroy the Keepers.

“Yes Kara Martin sent us the report on the rod.” Thirika touched my arm an unusual gesture for her. “A lot of it didn’t make sense but I believe you.”

I was unsure what to say next. I had to tell her something. “I got to the surface I’m unsure how and found myself in some ruins in the middle of a desert. Mouse was good enough to supply me with food and water. I had my comms which started working again and called Xenai’s ship she sent a rescue shuttle for me.” I didn’t tell her how Kelli reacted to me and I hadn’t told her that Xenai was a telepath. I’d just told Thirika that a telepath had found the traitors amongst the gala guests. “I got picked up and made my report to the captain.”

“Yet you neglected to tell us?”

“I wasn’t sure about that I had insulted the Elders. Captain Xenai was my commander.”

“I see.”

I winced at that. “I was given my bangle by the Elders but that was only to pursue Vanessa.”

“True.”

“I was worried about the Keepers so I went to see Ljufu she is head of Saros Security.”

“And?”

“Her office was bugged. Denassi warned us about the bug but the damage had been done. Somehow Vanessa had Ljufu’s office under surveillance.” I took a deep breath wishing I had done something different that day. Unconsciously I stared at my hand it was clenching and unclenching I forced myself to stop. If Thirika had seen it and it was a good bet she had she didn’t comment. “We only just got there and Vanessa arrived. I had in my sights and I froze.” I looked at Vanessa. “Could have shot her but I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t kill in cold blood.”

“That is because you have a warrior’s soul. You are not as the humans say a cold -blooded killer. I admire you for that.”

“Jervic pushed my out of the way when she threw a limpet mine at me. It caught him on the chest.” My voice grew shaky. “It nearly killed him and I lost half my hand trying to get it off.” I glanced at Thirika trying hard to gage her reaction. She merely nodded thoughtfully. I continued. “I don’t remember much after that Kelli put me in a cell stitcher.” That was the end of my time on Saros.” Well time I could tell her about. “I don’t know how much more I could tell about Saros?”

“That will be enough Gwen,” Thirika said softly. She made a gesture putting her hand to her chest one of those odd Valkyrie things I had been told about. “Let’s get going.”

We walked on I worried that I’d told Thirika too much. The trouble was I trusted her. I wanted to tell her everything but I didn’t want her to react badly to me with my connection to the Keepers.

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