Florian ignored her. “They’re mostly recovered,” he said to Kodran. “It will have to do. We are in the process of transporting them to their ship. They will be leaving the planet shortly.”
“You see?” Temra spat at Rosamund. “Your mate is a traitor!”
Kodran looked Temra in the eye. “Technically, I am. But you don’t know the whole story, and now I will have to tell it. Florian, bring the Draell-nar here, please.”
“No!” Prenzal protested. “We can’t!”
“It’s the only way to keep them safe.”
Florian nodded and left the cavern, heading down one of the tunnels. The medics continued ministering to the Vulfans’ burns, and the Vulfans slowly, painfully climbed to their feet. They stood apart from the Draell, glaring at them suspiciously.
Kodran turned his attention to Rosamund. “Are you hurt?” he asked, brushing her hair from her face and looking her up and down. “Did they injure you in any way?”
“No, I’m fine,” she assured him. “I’m sorry I snuck over here. I figured that if you couldn’t tell me what was happening, I’d just find out for myself. I didn’t want to have to leave you.”
“You didn’t?” A huge smile spread across his face. “I mean, of course you didn’t. And you won’t. You will stay here with me, forever.”
“If Sekari doesn’t burn us all to a crisp,” Prenzal said sourly.
“Can he get to us down here?” Rosamund looked around.
“No,” Kodran assured her. “They will have fled as soon as they saw that their attempt has failed. My family will be launching a counter- attack on them.”
Dozens of Draell-nar began filing into the room. They were all pale and thin, and the adolescents and adults had thick white burn scars on their faces.
Rosamund recognized the woman from the ship, who was carrying her little girl. The girl wriggled out of her arms and ran over to Prenzal, and the woman followed.
“Are you all right?” she asked Prenzal timidly. “I heard you were on the surface when an attack took place. I was so afraid for you.”
Prenzal nodded awkwardly. “Feodora. I am happy to see you again,” he said, then gathered her into his arms for a tight hug.
“His heart’s fire,” Kodran explained to Rosamund.
“Ah, I see. And the fact that he was separated from her was why he was acting like such a pissy little jerk?”
Prenzal turned to glare at her. “I have ears,” he informed her loftily.
“Good. Do you need me to speak louder?” Rosamund gave him a fake-polite smile.
“Hey!” Temra snapped. “I want the truth. Who are these people, and what does this have to do with you collaborating with cyborgs?”
“These are the survivors of the mining moon. They are the people we are accused of killing,” Kodran said. “Sekari lied when he told you that he was here to investigate me. He knew what really happened, and once you found the cyborgs for him, his plan was to kill us all so we could not tell the Galactic Federation the truth when their ship arrived. Then, I am sure, he would have made up some story about how we attacked him first and it was self-defense.”
“Damn it, Kodran, what is the truth?” Rosamund said impatiently.
“You know that Futuros made the cyborgs from psychotic prisoners on death row,” Kodran said, addressing both the Vulfans and Rosamund. “And you know that those cyborgs started malfunctioning. What Futuros kept hidden was that after the prisoner failure, they experimented on a squadron of soldiers. The soldiers were thought to have been lost in battle, but Futuros actually kidnapped them. The soldiers also overcame their programming. Because the Galactic Federation has a kill-on-sight order for all cyborgs, the soldier-cyborgs fled and went into hiding.”
“But what does this have to do with these people?” Temra gestured at the Draell-nar.
“The soldiers saved us,” one of the woman said. She was tall and had a regal bearing, and her face was thickly scarred. “I am Saran,” she added. “And these are what’s left of my people.” She indicated the Draell-nar with a sweeping gesture. “Half of us were wiped out by the rogue cyborgs.”
Kodran nodded, his face grim. “When the Draell-nar sent out their distress call, the soldier-cyborgs were the first ones to arrive. They were under heavy fire from the rogues, and they were out-gunned, but they risked their lives to load the Draell-nar onto their ship, and then they fled.”
“So why did you have to keep that hidden?” Rosamund asked.
“Sekari ordered me to blow up the soldier-cyborgs’ ship,” Kodran said. “But by then I had been contacted by the Draell-nar and I knew that these particular cyborgs were rescuing them, not carrying them off to kill them. I told Sekari. He insisted that I destroy the ship anyway. He said that there was no such thing as a good cyborg, and clearly it was a trick.”
Rosamund recoiled in horror. “Why would he order you to destroy a ship with women and children on board? His own people?”
