Chapter 47
Hattie
Breathing quickly, Hattie ran to try to catch up with the guys. She was really feeling the disadvantage of her shorter limbs as she struggled to close the gap. They weren’t running, but their long strides were eating up ground much faster than she could.
Brilhar village was under attack.
Survii’s team was keeping up communication with the Earth – helping to iron out details about the coming ambassador and the changes to accommodate them – when someone told them what was happening.
After Tuvo and Hattie left, the villagers returned to their normal lives. They were still riding high on their victory over the Three Rings.
Now, the Three Rings were back.
Hattie didn’t know exactly what happened, but she did know that after everyone left Brilhar, they had taken the chance for revenge.
Now the guys were going back down to Earth.
And she was going with them.
Though she knew it was wrong, she couldn’t help but feel guilty. This all felt like her fault. Like she might have been the one who brought the Three Rings to Brilhar.
She wasn’t. They already knew the village and tormented them on their own. She also hadn’t gotten involved with them by choice. They attacked her, the village, Tuvo. That was their choice. None of them could be faulted for defending themselves.
But despite knowing all that, she couldn’t help but feel responsible. And she wouldn’t be able to rest until she knew all her friends were okay.
Hence why she was running after the guys as they made their way down to the shuttle bay. They had ordered her and the others to stay. While the other girls listened, she had not. They didn’t even notice her trying to chase them down, focused as they were.
Survii, through Romival, was arguing with the secretary general of the United Nations, telling – not asking – him that they were going down to deal with this problem themselves.
They hadn’t yet worked out an agreement for how the aliens could be involved with criminal activity, but Earth’s government stated that it definitely wasn’t going to be about anything besides alien related matters.
This was a hard line they were crossing.
But the domini had their own honor system.
Tuvo had befriended those people down in Brilhar.
They had helped them, protected them. And Atem considered that a debt to be paid since Hattie was his sister and Tuvo his best friend.
Survii, ever the diplomat, was going to smooth the way, while Romival was needed as the only alien to speak fluent English.
Havali wasn’t going to be left behind either and was no slouch in a fight himself.
The five of them moved like a well-oiled machine, practically in step, following behind Atem as they took the steps down to the shuttle loading docks.
Hattie jumped the last few steps and sprinted. Pushing herself hard. Still, she almost wasn’t fast enough to throw herself through the closing door of the landing shuttle. It beeped at her, detecting an obstruction, and immediately slid back up. She turned and smacked the button to close it again.
“Hattie?” Tuvo said, the others all staring in surprise. “What are you doing here? I told you to-”
“I’m going with you.”
“No, you’re not.”
“You don’t get to make that choice.”
“There wasn’t a choice involved. You’re staying here.” He pressed the button to raise the door.
She pressed it again, shutting it back. “You can’t keep me here.”
He didn’t even respond, just gave her a look. Both of them knew he very well could.
She returned it with one of her own. Assuring her in the same way that doing so would turn out very badly for him.
“It is dangerous.”
“I’ll be careful.”
“You’re most careful by staying here.”
“They’re my friends. I’m not going to sit idly by when I can help!”
“You can’t help! It’s a fight. We’re going down to kill those ecters and fix this mess. You cannot help with that, nor would I let you if you could.”
“That’s exactly why I have to be there! Do you know how much trouble this is going to cause? Aliens coming down to Earth and killing humans is not a good look! You’re going to be putting our treaty at risk.”
“They’re the ones attacking and killing innocents, but we’re the ones that are wrong?”
“I never said it was logical, but it is true. If you have me there, at least it won’t be aliens killing humans with no buffer between. I can soften that blow.”
“Alanna can do that!”
Survii growled, immediately angered by Tuvo putting his mate at risk instead. And while it was true that Alanna was acting as the official go-between for Earth and the Coalition, these people were closer to Hattie. They were her friends. They had history.
If she was there, then they could at least play it off as her coming to the rescue of those who had helped her. It wouldn’t be quite as bad, even if the result was the same.
“I’ll be careful,” she promised again, softening her voice. “I’ll do whatever you say. But I’m going down there, Tuvo. I won’t let you stop me.”
“It’s fine,” Havali said, stepping behind her, putting a hand to her shoulder. “I’ll look after her. She’s not wrong. Appearances are important, Tuvo. I would rather the humans see this as her ordering us to help her friends than us invading their planet and enacting our justice upon them.”
Tuvo snarled, looking back to Atem. The Dominani let out a short, frustrated breath before sitting in the pilot’s seat without a word.
Hattie’s shoulders relaxed and she touched Tuvo’s arm with a smile. “Thank you.”
“Do not thank me for bringing you into danger,” he growled, grabbing her wrist and yanking her into his arms, whispering in her ear. “You carry my pup, yet you want to run into battle? Your bravery is beautiful, Hattie, but I wish you would not worry me so.”
She smiled, running her hand down his chest. “I trust you all to protect me. And maybe I want to protect you as well.”
He said nothing, but his grip tightened as he pulled her up, closer to him, her feet dangling towards the ground. Worried for her but loving her all the same.
***
The village was empty.
And smoking.
Hattie stepped off the shuttle, following the guys after they made sure the area was clear of danger.
She had seen the destruction from inside, but walking into it, smelling the rotted, spilled food, the ashy remains of the burned homes, and hearing the eerie silence of a place quickly evacuated was a completely different experience.
“Where is everyone?” She asked, looking around. Uneasy.
“No investigation has been done yet,” Survii said as he and Romival spread out, looking around with a careful eye. “Someone from the village ran to the nearest town and asked for help. We were informed as a courtesy. Human officials are still on their way here.”
Hattie frowned. She knew that Brilhar was far from aid, but she hadn’t really appreciated how dangerous that truly could be. The village had long been abandoned. It had been days since the initial attack.
Heart hurting at the sight of the careless destruction around her, she followed Havali as he started looking for clues.
She wanted to follow Tuvo, but he and Atem had ordered her to stay away from the two of them.
As First Warrior and Dominani respectfully, if something happened, those two were going to be the ones running towards danger. They didn’t want her near that.
Hattie had no clue what they were looking for amongst the remains of the village.
All she could see were some houses that had been burned down completely, others that had just been scorched, destruction like someone had gone through deliberately breaking things, and the general chaos of the remains of a place quickly abandoned.
The kitchen hurt her the most. As she passed through the place she had worked in, laughed in, made friends in, the sight of the wasted food tossed around, the cold cooking fires, and the trampled cooking tools made her tear up.
It took a surprisingly short time for the guys to find what they were looking for.
Tracks led into the trees. As Hattie followed them – sandwiched between Havali at her back and Survii and Romival at her front – she realized that she knew this path.
This was the direction that led to the safety platforms up in the tree.
Of course. If they were under attack, it would make sense that everyone would go there.
The hope that rose in her chest at the thought made the ruined sight of the platforms hit that much harder.
The platforms that she had taken shelter on just days ago were ruined now.
It looked like someone had tried to rip them down and shot through them.
Fragments of wood littered the ground, while only a few broken pieces remained in the tree.
The rope ladder was in a pile on the ground and, as Hattie walked towards the tree, Tuvo was lifting it in his hands.
“Ripped,” he said, showing the frayed end to Atem. “Yanked down.”
“There’s dried blood,” Havali added, pointing to dark marks splattered against the tree and along some of the wood pieces. It had already rained today and most of the blood on the leaves or ground had been washed away, but some still remained.
The sight made her shiver. She wrapped her arms around herself, trying not to think of exactly who that blood belonged to.
“The trail continues this way,” Atem said, looking at something amongst the wilds. Hattie really had no idea what she was supposed to be seeing, but she trusted them as she walked along.
And she just hoped, beyond hope, that her friends had survived.