Trapped (The Condemned Series #1) - Alison Aimes Page 0,22
like to see this, too. The lake down there is at least fifteen degrees warmer than the one in the cave.”
Like a swinging pendulum, her feelings careened back in the other direction, something almost akin to affection for Convict flaring inside.
“Amazing.” She took a few awed steps closer to the cliff edge, peering down. “I can’t believe it’s real. I never truly believed we’d find anything useful here on Dragath25, but there it is. Plain as day. Living, thriving wild plants. Something we haven’t had at home in ages.” She clapped her hands in awe. “Do you know what this means? The mission wasn’t a failure, after all. You may have just saved Earth.”
He reared back as if slapped. “I don’t give a fuck about Earth.” His scowl was fierce. “What the hell has anyone there done for me except strand me on this hellhole and wait for me to die? I say Earth’s demise is fitting justice.”
“But millions of people will die.” She slammed her fist into her hand. “You can’t honestly wish them all dead. My brother and sister are there. They’ve done nothing to you.”
He shrugged, a disturbing non-answer. “It doesn’t matter what we think, anyway. We can't do a thing to change it.”
“But we can.” She corrected, praying she was making the right decision in confiding in him. “A search and rescue shuttle is coming. It’s standard procedure after a crash. They’ll come to investigate and identify survivors. They’ll save us and we’ll relay our findings. We’ll be heroes. All of us, including you.” She hurried to add the last part as his frown deepened. “Because you were the one to show me this place. I’ll be very clear on that point. I’ll tell the Command Council all you’ve done for us. I’m sure that will go a long way in reducing your sentence.” She’d make sure of it. She owed him at least that.
He snorted. “For such a smart female, you really have no clue.”
“Excuse me?” She drew up short.
“There’s no shortening my sentence. The Command Council wants me on Dragath25 until I die and nothing will change that. And those rescuers you’re counting on?” He shook his head, pity in his gaze. “They won’t make it. You think your shuttle crashed by accident?”
An inky cloud of dread spread through her veins. “What are you saying?”
“I’m saying the Council has no idea what’s going on here. I’m saying you’re hardly the first research vessel to try and land here. I’m saying 225’s pack brought down your shuttle, just like the few that came before, and they’ll do the same to whomever comes next.”
“That’s not true.”
He started toward her. “Is that why you’ve been so accommodating? Were you holding out hope for rescue? Imagining that this little deal of ours only needed to be for the short term? That you’d only have to suffer some Dragath25 lowlife’s cock inside you for a few days more?” His laugh had no humor in it. “Sorry, fighter girl, but there’s no imminent rescue in sight.”
“You’re lying. They’re coming.”
“225’s pack only lets the droids through because they like what they bring—food, clothes, and bodies for slave labor or fucking—and they haven’t wanted Command Council to get suspicious until they were ready to take them on.”
“Take them on?”
“You think you can leave a group of criminals alone for thousands of years and not have them build their own societies? All it takes is one visionary psychopath with the ability to terrorize enough followers into doing whatever he wants and you go from a disorganized penal planet full of kill-or-be-killed criminals to a well-organized terrorist training center. And that is what Dragath25 has become.”
“That can’t be.”
“You may not have heard on Earth because of the Council’s censorship, but this planet is now run by a vicious pack of killers with delusions of grandeur and a fairly large grudge against the Council. To top it off, they’ve figured out how to jam entering ship’s electronic systems, causing them to crash without much warning at all. From what I’ve seen, they’re on their way to building the kind of machinery that can do far more. Maybe even get them off this planet and into space.” He hoisted the backpack that was never far from his side. “All they’re missing is a few critical pieces and some know-how. But those will eventually come.”
“No.” She took a step back. Then another. “You’re lying. Rescue is coming. And I’m going to get off here. Ava and Dr.