The Betrayal Chapter 25 revised (new writing)

The clay-colored globe of Haven hung before them as the courier ship popped back into n-space. Rubbing her forehead in thought, Brooks sighed. Below, she mused, Kate would be fighting for her life. She just hoped they got there in time.

Looking over a Paul, who was piloting, they both wore worried expressions. When Reyes had contacted them, it was obvious he was more worried then they were. In response, they had packed in a hurry and departed for Haven.

Which now makes us AWOL on top of it all, she thought.

“This is going to be very risky,” Paul said to her.

“You aren’t kidding, Les,” Brooks said, grabbing a bag.

Unzipping it, she pulled out several weapons from inside. As Paul handled their descent, she started to load each of them. As well trained as they were, she thought, they were no match for the people hunting Kate. All they could hope to do was to even the odds out somewhat in her favor.

“Our best hope is that they haven’t made their move yet,” she said as she finished.

“And if they have made their move?”

“Then we have to give Kate the best chance of surviving we can,” Brooks said, a frown crossing her face. “We’re expendable; she’s not.”

“That’s what bothers me,” Paul said with a weak smile.

“What’s wrong, Les?” Brooks asked as they broke through the clouds. “You want to live forever?”

“Yes,” he said. “Who doesn’t?”

“I want to also,” She said, placing a hand on his. “So don’t feel bad. But we need to make sure the Skipper lives…she’s far more important then all of us.”

“Do you believe everything he told us?”

Brooks sat a rifle in her lap while she contemplated what Reyes told them. It had seemed so impossible, she had to admit, but he believed it. The idea that Kate was some savior warrior blew her mind. However, looking at some of the evidence that Reyes had showed her, it was hard to argue against it.

The idea that the skipper was another warrior-princess in a line, she thought with a chuckle. That stretches from the beginning to the end of time is…interesting to say the least.

“I don’t know if I do,” she said. “But he does, and it’s hard to dispute some of the images we saw though. I say we just keep Kate alive and worry about the rest later.”

###


Almir was trying to get her ass killed, Reyes thought as he slammed a fist down on his desk. She had absolutely no idea who, or what, she was! With a sigh a leaned back in his chair, his eyes staring at the ceiling.

Matthews telling her how much I had controlled her really put a crimp in my plans, he thought while gritting his teeth.

The idea of controlling her, he reflected, hadn’t been a move of capriciousness. No, he had tried to keep what she was under his control, doing what he had wanted her to do. It had been three hundred years since the previous incarnation of her had been alive, which made this one even more special.

With the unique abilities she has, he thought. She would be the perfect weapon if I could get her back under my control.

However, he reminded himself, she wasn’t under his control, and that galled him. She had gone running straight to Haven and didn’t take the bait he had set for her. Damn her, he mused; she was just too pig-headed sometimes for her own good!

Now he was risking his limited resources to keep her alive! Just like when she had been under his wing in Intelligence, there was no talking sense to her. The woman was just going to do whatever she wants to do, he fumed, and be damned the consequences.

Looking at his holovid again, he was amazed at how identical the two women were. One of them was from three hundred years previous the other was a recent image of Almir. If that wasn’t enough proof that she fulfilled the ancient prophecies, he didn’t know what was.

If you don’t get yourself killed doing something stupid! He raged as he stared at the screen.