Orion Colony Complete Series Boxed Set by J.N. Chaney (best detective novels of all time .TXT) 📕

I dragged my sorry behind from the ground, thinking I should have seen this one coming. I was putting too much trust in people these days. I knew there was something off about the Remboshi prophetess. Something hadn’t seemed right about her from the start.

My head started to clear from whatever it was I had been gassed with.

What the heck, might as well try the doors, I told myself. It’s not like you have anything to lose.

I tried the two doors in the room without luck. Worry laced my thoughts, not for myself but for everyone else.

Tong, Stacy, Arun, Ricky, and even Mutt were in danger. Who knew what the mad Remboshi had done to them.

“Oh, I see you are awake.” Jezra’s voice filled the room. “I will give you a moment for your head to clear from the Niox.”

“Why are you doing this to us, you old bag?” I asked to the ceiling. I couldn’t tell where her voice was coming from. My best guess was there were speakers mounted somewhere overhead. “I thought you said you believed us, that we are the Children of the Dawn?”

“I do believe that, but I have been wrong before.” Jezra laughed as though she had just shared something funny. “These are my people’s lives that hang on your shoulders. I have to not only be sure, I have to be positive without a shadow of a doubt.”

“What did you do with everyone else?” I asked, clenching my hands into fists. “Where are they?”

“Rest assured I am only holding them in cells for the time being,” Jezra answered. “They are safe. Even your smaller friend that was wounded and the woman with him are cared for. I locked them in the medical wing.”

“How generous of you,” I said through bared teeth.

“Despite what you may think, I am not your enemy,” Jezra said.

I laughed.

“Yeah, okay,” I said, shaking my head. “I might have believed that before I saw you crack Tong over the head and gas Stacy, Mutt, and me.”

“Tong would not see reason. He refused to have you endure the tribunal.” Jezra sighed. “I had to do what I did to ensure you are the one.”

“Listen, lady,” I said, raising my hands into the air. “I don’t even want to know what a tribunal is. I’m not going to play any of your games. Being awake so long by yourself has warped your mind, you feeble old bat. You’re not thinking straight. Let me out of this room and we’ll take Ricky and the supplies we need to defeat Legion, then we’ll be on our way.”

“You keep using terms to describe me like ‘bag’ and ‘bat,’” Jezra said over the speaker. “But I wonder what they mean.”

“Nothing good,” I promised.

“Look to your left, if you would,” Jezra said.

I really didn’t want to, but what else was I going to do? Go sit in a corner and feel sorry for myself? Not my style.

With one door behind me and the other on the opposite side of the circular room, I looked left to the plain wall.

This chick has really lost her mind, I thought to myself. How did I not see exactly how crazy she was before?

A portion of the wall receded a few inches, then up into the ceiling. A monitor flicked to life, showing Jezra on one side and three smaller squares giving me views of my friends.

True to her word, the monitors showed Ricky and Arun safe and in the medical wing. Ricky was actually sitting up and aware. He looked better—tired, but better.

Stacy and Mutt were together in a room not unlike my own but much smaller. Mutt walked back and forth nervously. Stacy was studying the door to her room, no doubt trying to think of a way to get out.

Lastly, Tong stood alone in a room much like the smaller circular room Stacy and Mutt were in. The alien sat down in the middle of the room with a look of resignation.

“See,” Jezra said with a smile. “I have not hurt them, only placed them in rooms until we know with certainty that you are the Great Dawn. Like you said, I have been awake for too long. My brain is not what it used to be. What if I am mistaken? What if there is a one percent chance that you are not the Great Dawn and I doom my people by giving over all of our supplies and assets to you?”

I remained quiet for a moment, studying Jezra on the right side of the monitor. I beat myself up for not giving her enough credit. Single-handedly, she had captured all five of us—six if you counted Mutt. There was so much more to her than met the eye.

“Well, let’s get this over with,” I said, taking a deep cleansing breath. I prepared myself for what came next. “What is it that you want me to do? What’s the tribunal?”

“A test,” Jezra said with a wide grin. “A test just to be sure you are who you say you are, and who I think you are.”

“I never said I was the Great Dawn, that was Tong’s assertion. And couldn’t you just have asked me to take this test instead of gassing me and throwing me in this weird room?” I asked.

“I don’t think you would have agreed to this kind of test.” Jezra shrugged. “When I brought it up to Tong before I gassed you and knocked you unconscious, he was very much against the idea.”

“So what is the tribunal?” I asked her. “We’re going to play charades or you give me a riddle or something?”

“Not quite,” Jezra answered. “The tribunal is a test of willpower and courage—raw determination, if you would. The prophecy of the Great Dawn I saw so many years ago showed me a leader without limits. I saw a being capable of dealing with loss at the greatest level and using that loss to make him stronger not weaker.”

“Is this all some