Page 70 of Alien Peacock

The side walls of my cage are solid metal, and only the front is bars. So I can’t see her. “Are you all right?”

“I’m as good as you can be after you’ve failed your mission and then spent months as a captive of the Bululg. So like I said, not great. They told me some things about you, Maeve. Thank you for coming to get me.”

She sounds downbeat, which shouldn’t surprise me. But it makes me unsure if it’s actually my sister. “For all the good it did. Tara, do you remember the summers when we were kids? Uncle Nick’s cabin by Lake Superior?”

“No,” she scoffs. “It was grandads’s cabin by Lake Erie. Now, you tell me: whose bike did I wreck in grade two?”

I think back. A bike? “It was Mackenzie Norton’s. And it wasn’t her bike, it was her skateboard. It broke in half when you jumped on it. You claimed it was her own fault.”

“It was!” Tara exclaims. “Who leaves their wooden skateboard out in therain?!The wood was all soggy and soft.”

Yeah, it’s her. “I had to check. I wish I could hug you, but there’s some steel in the way.”

“We’re not done yet,” she says, sounding more like herself. “Don’t lose hope.”

“Oh, I won’t.” But I know that without the energy bar and its chemicals, I would get pretty close to that point right now. “Damn it. They were waiting for me.”

“Yep. They’ll use you as some kind of hostage. They want to pressure someone using you.”

Arelion.These guys are his enemies. “Well, that won’t work.”

“They think it will.”

I can’t hold back a dry, joyless laugh. “Then they’re a bunch of idiots. I stole his spaceship and left him without a word. He’s going to be pretty mad at me right now.”

It’s awkward to talk to Tara like this. I never expected this to be how I’d meet her again, held in cages so far apart that we have to raise our voices to speak, and it all echoes from the metal walls in this big room. It doesn’t make for the most cheerful reunification.

“What’s your story, anyway?” I ask, then remember that if she wants to tell me, she will. There may be things she wants to keep secret. “Actually, never mind. This isn’t the best way to talk. How’s the food in this joint?”

“It’s bland and harmless,” she says. “Most food is, here in space. But of course I mostly had prison food. Yeah, they placed us together like this so that we would say things to each other that they may be able to use later. So the less we talk, the better. Sorry. I’m not happy you’re here, Maeve. But I appreciate you coming.”

“I heard they were going to execute you. The Bululg, I mean.”

“They were. And then these peacock guys came along recently, and things changed.”

Even with the cocktail of drugs in my system, I have to pull myself together to not cry. “I want to hug you so bad right now, Tara.”

“The feeling is mutual. And we will, Maeve. We will.” Only a sister would be able to hear the tiny hint of defeat in my voice.

“I know.”

I want to tell her about Arelion and everything, but until I know what these Eoans want, it will be too risky. I can’t guess what might be valuable to them. Already we’ve probably said too much.

“I’ll take a nap,” Tara says. “Thanks for coming to get me, Maeve. I was hopingsomeonewould.”

18

- Arelion-

Despite being full of supplies for the army, theRevengeflies as easily as ever.

The worst of my anger has passed, leaving a dull ache that turns sharp the moment I let my thoughts touch upon Maeve.

Did I chase her away? I know my manner can be gruff. Did I ignore her or hurt her with my constant talk about my mission? Or was she less than impressed about me not being able to drop everything and help her accomplish hers?

Should I simply follow my old plan and go straight to Eo and throw myself into the war?

“I do protest against this,” Cerak says. “Your army is counting on you to lead them.”