The Betrayal RW Chapter 7 snippet 1

Kate looked like a bloodied Demon from Hell striding down the dim corridor. She had flown straight down after Paul announced they had entered the computer banks. Her flight suit stained with the blood of the Benham’s crew, she served as a reminder to everyone just who, and what, they were dealing with.

She listened to the depressingly lonely sound of her footfalls as she closed on the command center. The people behind this needed to be brought to justice, she fumed, and nothing would matter more to her. Even if it cost her life in the end, Janice and her family deserved to know her murderers were punished.

So busy was Kate in her thoughts, she hardly noticed when Loving appeared at her side. She noted with a raised eyebrow, the stunned expression that Loving had. She could read her friend’s thoughts over the blood on her flight suit as they moved in silence.

“You said you remember everything?” Loving said, breaking the silence.

“Every damn bit of it,” Kate said rounding a corner. “The bastards!”

“Kate,” Loving grabbed her arm. “Wait a second!”

Her eyes burned with a flame that Loving had never seen before when Kate whirled around on her. Loving had seen her angry and determined before, but nothing like this. It was almost like a obsession had taken over her life; turning her into someone other then who she was.

“What should I wait for?” she demanded. “So the people who have tried to kill me, or raped my mind, can do it again? So they can kill another crew like they did Janice’s? **** that!”

“I understand,” Loving said. “I really do, but we need to slow down and approach this more carefully.”

“Can’t you see?” Kate yelled, tears nearly welling up in her eyes. “Don’t you get it? We’re caught between two opposing forces diametrically opposed to each other-and they both want power. Yes, Fleet and the government are behind this-and the attempts on my life! However, Reyes mind-****ed me for the purpose of using me as his weapon to defeat his enemies! Lost in the middle of all of this is: What is right for Kate? What is right for the Alliance?”

“I can’t argue with that,” Loving said. “However, I can say that if we’re not careful, we’re going to end up just like Janice and the Benham. That’s what I’m trying to tell you.”

“What are you saying, Jennifer?”

“I’m saying that Fleet ordered Janice out here,” Loving said. “For the exact purpose of testing out new technology they had received from an alien derelict.”

“They what?”

“You will see in the computer records, Kate,” Loving explained.

She turned on a heel and started to walk even faster, the silence casting a pall over them. If someone truly ordered Janice out here to die, she mused, then by the time she was done they were going to wish they were dead! Snarling, she shook her head at mankind; at least with animals you didn’t see them screwing each other over for a goddamned percentage!

Stopping before the door she wanted, Kate took a deep breath to get her feelings under control. She was the Captain-for God’s sake!-And she couldn’t afford to have people seeing how hurt and angry she was. No, she reminded herself, she had to be the rock of Gibraltar for everyone else…all while she fell apart herself.

Welcome to the joys of command, she thought with a snort. No one is truly here to help me when I struggle.

Hitting the control with a sigh, she watched the door slide open. As she stepped through into the brightly light command center, she could feel the eyes boring into her. Maybe seeing the blood that had already be shed, she thought with a angry snort, would help the others to see just how goddamned important this mission was!