Dark Universe & Forbidden Love (38 page)

Even though other species didn’t
know what happened on Sylareon, they could smell something from the incident in
training center. The official statement from Glycan royal family had it that
there was a sudden outbreak of an epidemic in the Glycan area of the training
center and they took swift actions and removed those infected trainees. No one
bought this bullshit. Some of the species such as Intinese, Lysisese, Ajiese
and Yaseen started to take diplomatic actions to find out what really happened.
Diilre began to advise their weapons to Glycan so that they could sell them to
whoever involved. Estian, Oireitan and Uainanese had mobilized their fleets as
if it was the morning of black Friday and they needed to get in the line.

Liutein
started to feel the pressure from Glycan armed forces. For all 23 commanders of
Glycan fleets, Liutein detained 21 of them. He didn’t capture Kalan and the
commander of the 22nd fleet didn’t make to the ceremony, because his fleet was
so far away from home. The deputy chiefs of fleets started to checked in with
their commanders. Liutein had his soldiers impersonate those generals. Lucky
for him, deputy chiefs of fleets didn’t ask for the codes in regular check in.
Liutein was still working on dragging generals to his side. But to his
surprise, even if he killed those generals’ families, they still didn’t give
in. Liutein knew those generals had the emergency code which was designed to
give orders to the fleets in the case that General Klizan couldn’t. Except
those high rank officers in the military, Liutein released most of the Glycans
captured during the ceremony on the condition that they never talked about it.

The
public didn’t really know what happened. Liutein had the full control of media
and he silenced all negative voices and rumors. However, words got around and
unrest were growing among the 17 families.

Right
now Liutein was checking the blueprints of Gaya Cannon. He couldn’t initiate
Gaya Cannon, so he was thinking about trading the blueprints for Estian’s help.

Lreque
walked to Liutein and said, “My lord, we have received an update from Human.
Right now they are following the Cruiser General Klizan. It has been two days.
Again, they are answering where our fleet are?”

“I know.
I remember that, but right now we can only send cargo vessels. That is no match
to the cruiser.” Liutein said uneasily.

“Treton
London doesn’t want to send Human fleet. It seems they want to keep their
involvement minimum.”

“Even if
they want to, their fleet couldn’t do much. I will try to make a deal with
Estian to use their fleet. Prepare to send the coordinate of the cruiser to
Estian.”

“If they
find out the Hylocan eyeball, I don’t think they will give the cruiser to us.”
Lreque said in a worried tone.

“Whoever
is on the cruiser won’t let Estian board the cruiser. It is the risk we have to
take. As long as we have the eyeball, we don’t need Klizan and those generals
anymore.” Liutein said firmly.

He had
confidence to control the situation on Sylareon, because he got 10000 Glycans
made by Human. As long as he kept the fleets in the dark about what happened,
he still had time to work on those generals.

Gloria was sleeping in Jason’s
arm, her breasts pressing Jason’s chest. Jason knew if they were not on this
ghost cruiser, he would definitely kiss every inch of her body and take her
again and again. But right now he was not in the mood at all. He couldn’t help
think what happened to the crew. He slowly got up, sat on the edge of the bed
and took out the ring from his pocket. It was still bloody red. Jason felt some
connection between the ring and the eyeball. Thinking about this, Jason got off
the bed and headed to the middle part of the vessel.

Jason
walked nervously to the eyeball. The pupil glanced over at Jason for a second
and then moved away from him. But as soon as Jason put on the ring, the
eyeball’s pupil came back at Jason.

“Can you
read my mind?” Jason asked loudly.

There
was no response from the eyeball.

Jason
felt that was very stupid. He let out a sigh and looked at his right palm. It
still had “I love you. Lisania.” there.

Klaycon
walked into the compartment quietly and ask, “Where did you get the ring?”

Jason
was scared. He turned around and said, “You didn’t wait outside of my room all
the time, did you?”

“That
ring belongs to the Hylocan queen. It could spare the queen from the Oracle’s
ability.” Klaycon said calmly.

“Anything
else?” Jason asked easily.

“Did
Gloria know?”

“You
really care about her.” Jason said seriously.

“That is
none of your fucking business.” Klizan shouted.

They
stared at each other and got ready to fight. But Klaycon suddenly gave up and
walked away. Jason thought for a second and then decided to keep the ring on.
He found a piece of cloth and covered it.

The next
day Jason, Gloria and others gathered in the kitchen to have breakfast. Even
though they had a whole night sleep, each of them had bloodshot eyes except
Jason.

“I feel
like something was drilling into my brain last night.” Nissen said weakly.

“Me,
too.” Zier sighed.

“It may
have something to do with the eyeball.” Klaycon said tiredly.

“So
where are we going now?” Carila asked with yawns.

“I
couldn’t get in touch with my father.” Klaycon said uneasily.

Jason
slept just fine. He looked around and caught there was one girl missing. He
waited a while and said, “We miss one girl here.”

“Where
is Etoe? Let me call her.” Gloria said as she made the call. But her badge gave
a weird sound.

Except
Jason, everyone suddenly looked scared. Jason noticed their reactions and
asked, “What is it?”

“It
means Etoe’s badge doesn’t exist.” Gloria said in a low voice.

“It was
fine yesterday.” Zier said in a shaking voice.

Suddenly
everyone realised the seriousness of the situation. They separated into two
groups and scoured the cruiser. But they didn’t find Etoe, dead or alive. None
of them had any appetite after the search. They just sat there quietly. Klaycon
could tell Jason was wearing the ring right now. He thought about telling
others about the ring, but then everyone would fight to the death for the ring.
That was exactly what the eyeball wanted.

“Let’s
destroy the eyeball.” Carila said.

“No, the
eyeball is the reason why my father wanted me to secure this cruiser.” Klaycon
said hastily.

“What is
the point if we can’t get there alive?” Carila shouted.

“Calm
down. We don’t really know what happened to Etoe. It might have nothing to do
with the eyeball.” Zier said nervously.

“We know
it has something to do with the eyeball. We all can feel it. We just don’t have
the evidence.” Gloria said.

“The
point is to destroy the evidence. But how can you do it on the cruiser?” Jason
murmured. Suddenly, he grabbed several cookies from the table, shot out of his
chair and ran out of the kitchen.

“Jason,
where are you going?” Gloria shouted as she followed Jason closely.

“The
engine compartment.” Jason wheezed.

Jason
and Gloria soon arrived at the door of the engine compartment.

“What
are you looking for?” Gloria asked.

“Do you
know the bug called Yayi?” Jason asked.

“Yes, we
use them to protect the engine room from intruders.” Gloria said like an
expert.

“It can
eat almost everything, but some materials take longer for them to digest.”
Jason said as he threw the cookie at the door.

When the
cookie passed through the liquid like door, thousands of Yayi flooded the room.
Their light green bodies were half transparent. Jason and Gloria both saw many
of the Yayi had some fiber like materials in their abdomens. It was the
leftover of Etoe’s uniform.

“Now we
knew how she died.” Jason said sadly.

Gloria
let out a long sigh.

“But is
it a suicide or murder?” Jason murmured.

“Gloria,
we got companies. Come to the bridge!” Klaycon called in.

Gloria
and Jason soon joined others in the bridge. There were 10 Estian combat vessels
approaching the cruiser at full blast. Klaycon hailed Estian and learned they
were here to escort the cruiser back to Sylareon. Estian didn’t mention
anything about Liutein, but Klaycon knew it was not that simple.

“How
they find us?” Zier said in surprise.

“I have
no idea!” Klaycon said angrily.

“They
are with Liutein. We can’t let them get on board.” Carila said.

“Can we
escape?” Nissen asked nervously.

“There
are 10 of them and we can’t fire our weapons.” Klaycon said in disgust.

They
fell into silence.

Jason
wasn’t thinking about the Estian vessels. He knew Gloria should be alright even
if Estian captured the cruiser, because Gloria wasn’t from any of those
powerful families. But he couldn’t leave Gloria here because of the eyeball. He
motioned Gloria to follow him. After they left the bridge, Jason told Gloria
his plan.

“Estian
is closing in. We can’t get away.” Gloria said.

“We
will. If not, the eyeball will kill us all. You have helped your friends. Now
we need to save ourselves.” Jason said sincerely.

Gloria
paused for several seconds and said, “OK, I will go with you.”

They ran
to the rear part of the cruiser and piloted a small reconnaissance jet into the
space.

As soon as Jason and Gloria left
in a reconnaissance jet, one of Estian vessels left the formation and followed
it. The vessel hailed the jet several times, but Jason didn’t reply. He quickly
engaged the fighter into the dark matter passageway. But just before they
blasted off into it, the Estian vessel unleashed its missiles. Five of them
followed the fighter into the passageway. Jason maneuvered the jet and dodged
four missiles, but the last one hit hard on the rear of the jet. The jet lost
its power, drifting in the dark passageway.

Jason
checked the engine and only managed to contain the damage to a degree that it
wouldn’t blow up the jet. Then he went outside to check the hull. There were
several big breaches and he couldn’t do much.

Later he
went back into the jet and said, “We are in big trouble.”

“We
should see the good side. At least we got away from the eyeball.” Gloria
mimicked Jason’s tone and smiled kindly, trying to cheer Jason up.

“Yea,
that is the good side.” Jason tried to hide his anxiety. He paused there, lost
in thinking.

“Jason,
you alright?” Gloria asked gently.

“We need
to initiate the emergency rescue procedure.” He said calmly.

“Glycan
fleets will find us and they will kill you.” Gloria said caringly.

“I
really hope they will find us as soon as possible. If not, we will all die
here. I will be alright. I’ve dealt with Glycans on Sylareon.” Jason said as he
put on a tough face.

“No,
they will kill you. It can’t let that happen.”

“Gloria,
do you trust me?” Jason asked emotionally.

“Yes.”

“We will
be fine.” Jason said, and then initiated the procedure.

Several
hours later, Glycan Fifth fleet found their vessel and rescued Gloria and
Jason. Doensen, deputy chief of the Fifth fleet, had Jason locked up in a
compartment. Then he interrogated Gloria. She told Doensen what happened in the
training center, how they found Cruiser General Klizan and why they left the
cruiser. She emphasized how Jason saved her and her friends several times.
Doensen had no interest in Gloria’s love with a second class species. He cared
about his brother, Doisgy, the commander of Fifth fleet and the family. What
Gloria said proved his hypothesis and he decided to violate the command code
and immediately ordered the fleet to sail back to planet Sylareon.

Jason
was strolling back and forth in the small compartment, wondering how those
Glycans would deal with him. What worried him was the ring. When those Glycans
strip searched him, they took away everything. Right now he was only hoping
they had no idea what that ring was.

The door
suddenly opened. Gloria rushed inside and hugged Jason. They kissed
passionately for several seconds.

“Are you
alright?” Gloria asked caringly.

“Look at
me. I am fine. How about you? Did they give you any hard time?” Jason said
easily.

“You
still worry about me? You are the one in trouble.” Gloria said sincerely.

“I am
always in trouble.” Jason joked.

“You are
right about that. Now we need to get you out of here. I told the commander the
truth about how you save me and others, but it seems that he doesn’t care.”
Gloria said sadly.

“Not
surprise. You have a plan?”

“Wait
until the night. I will pull the fire alarm. Then I will get you out of here.
There are fighter jets in the hangar.” Gloria said hastily.

“Gloria,
listen to me. Don’t do that. If they found out, I don’t know how to save you.
You hear. This is a fleet. There are more than 300 vessel and we are right in
the middle of it. Even if I left this vessel, I can’t go far.” Jason said
patiently.

Gloria
fell into silence, casting her eyes down.

“Gloria,
look at me.” Jason said with a kind smile.

Gloria
raised her head and looked Jason into his eyes.

“If
anything happen to you, I won’t forgive myself. In that case, I would rather
die.” Jason said emotionally.

Gloria kissed
Jason on his lips. They held each other tight in arms.

“Knock!
Knock! Knock!”

“Jason,
I will figure something out. I will save you. I can’t live without you.” Gloria
said and ran out of the compartment.