Condition Evolution 4 by Kevin Sinclair (books for 10th graders TXT) 📕

“That bastard! I’ll see to him, Captain. This can’t stand,” Roger said, rising from the bed with his fists clenched.

“He's dead. I broke the weasel's neck after he pulled a knife on me.”

The prisoner jumped up. “You killed him?” he said with shock rather than anger on his face.

“I know you were friends, but I went in there to offer him a chance of redemption with the Uprising, but as you can see, he made it so only one person was leaving that room alive. I made sure it was me.”

I half expected the guy to attack me, and perhaps he would have if his way wasn’t impeded by Roger and Amnarr. But actually, he didn’t seem overly angry; he just stood there looking thoughtful. “Maybe you’re not as useless as we all thought. Rufus had a problem with you and Shaun from the beginning, influencing those he trusted into believing you shouldn’t be in charge of anyone. How he would be the best suited. He claimed that you’d stumbled onto your good fortune and enjoyed lauding it over the rest of us. He did his utmost to make it uncomfortable for the aliens that you put on our ship. If it wasn’t for the fact that Calparr is such a scary bastard, and William being well loved, he would have alienated half the crew. It would’ve gone very badly, very quickly.”

“That really doesn’t surprise me,” I replied a little impatiently, waiting for him to get to his point.

“Rufus ran the Ukraine base when Ogun wasn’t there, so in essence he’s been my leader since I came out of Anatoli. I’m shocked he tried to kill you, but then part of me isn’t surprised. On top of that, me and Roger go way back. So in spite of not fully trusting you, I do trust Roger here. He says you're a good person and that Shaun is everything he seems to be. I’m sad about Rufus, of course, but I accept he was a turd. It’s not a surprise it came to this, but if you let me rejoin the crew, I will work with you to the best of my ability and regain your trust.”

“You need to be sure, John,” Roger answered in my place, and I was a little pissed off with him, until I realized why he had. “Because I’ll warn you, after Rufus, if I catch you trying to undermine the captain here, or trying to get revenge in any way, that will be it for you. No more prison, if you get my gist!”

The man named John laughed nervously. “I understand very clearly.”

“Although I don’t condone capital punishment, Roger,” I said, eyeballing him, “I’m happy that we’ve reached an understanding. I only want everyone to be safe and get off here. If Roger vouches for you, and you want to be part of Uprising again, then you're good to go, John.”

“I’m in, I promise. No more shit from me.”

“Good to hear,” Roger said, and slapped the other man on the back.

“I’ll go and see the others, if you want to come along, Roger?”

“Sure, John can come along too.”

We visited the other two men, and I couldn’t help but be pleased that they were both convinced to rejoin, encouraged by the fact that I’d fought and killed Rufus for some reason. I’d thought that knowledge would have created a greater divide. People were fucking weird.

Chapter 13

Mother Knows Best

Yay for me, I didn’t have to sort out an assembly to explain the sudden demise of Rufus because Acclo had already arranged one to discuss the communication from the Apochros. With my face and leg covered in blood it would be best to get cleaned up first. But I'd have to pass everyone in the canteen to get to my quarters, which would cause too much chatter. I could have cleaned up a little in the cells and tried to keep it quiet a little longer, but ultimately that wouldn’t do us any good when everyone finally found out. So I made the decision to just go and address everyone now.

Amnarr offered to take the rap for it, but I didn’t want people thinking I couldn’t handle my business, even though it sounded like a nice easy copout. That could also cause animosity between humans and Torax. I really didn’t need that shit on my plate too. This was bad enough. Nope, I had to grit my teeth and get it out in the open, come what may. The men who were already involved escorted me to the hall. People were already milling around. I sent Amnarr off to get Acclo to start the meeting, then I walked across the hall to the podium.

I felt eyes on me, burning with concern and confusion most likely, but I only felt the judgment that would follow my news. Calegg, Elyek, and Ogun wasted no time in rushing over as soon as they saw me. Assaulting me barrage of questions and concern.

“I’m okay, guys, I promise I’m mostly healed up. It looks worse than it is, but I wanted people to see me like this with the news I have to deliver.”

“What news, Ember? Just tell me, I can’t handle not knowing,” Calegg said frantically.

I lowered my voice, to speak to the circle around me. “Rufus had made a knife, he tried to kill me with it... I’ve killed him.”

A collective gasp came from them all. “Why, what exactly happened?” Ogun said, his face almost as tortured as when he came out of his coma the first time.

“It looks like everyone is pretty much here now, so you may as well hear it with everyone else,” I said, gesturing to the flow of people moving into the hall.

Once Acclo had confirmed the whole of Uprising was present, with heart in mouth but trying to project an image of calm, I began to speak.

“Hello everyone and thank you for joining me. As you all know, we received a communication today.