Celeste continued to stare at him. Her trick had worked. She hadn’t known for sure if there was a connection between Clark and the Rekvok. It had been more of a suspicion. But now it was clear.
There were more gasps from behind her.
“I can’t believe this,” a voice boomed. “You traitor!”
It was Sarah. As part of her search, she must have decided to look for Jeremy too. Celeste didn’t know how long Sarah had been standing there, but it didn’t matter. The truth was finally out. Clark and his friends had an alliance with the Rekvok.
“Where is Clark right now?” Celeste demanded.
Jeremy seemed to have given up. “He is on the way with Lewis to meet the Rekvok. We normally take whoever we abduct near the spaceport, but since you destroyed the spaceport, we couldn’t do that this time. So, Clark planned to take the next human to the nearest base, the one where Jeb died. Based on what you had described, Clark was able to guess the position of the Rekvok base.”
Things began to make sense. Celeste recalled that Clark had made a point to ask about the destruction of the spaceport. Clark must have had to change his plans once he realized the usual handover location would no longer be possible.
“Why Tara?” Celeste asked, without removing the phaser from his right eye.
“She is a human,” Jeremy admitted. “We have been trading humans regularly with the Rekvok ever since they made a deal with us.”
Celeste was relieved that Tara hadn’t been chosen by Clark because they had discovered she was a Grekk. Instead, Clark must have seen a higher value in trading a human from space. She shuddered even thinking about Tara being eventually held by the Rekvok.
“What deal?” Sarah demanded.
Celeste removed the phaser from Jeremy’s right eye and put it back in her holster. She gestured to Sephim, who released some pressure off Jeremy, but still kept a hold on him.
“What I am going to tell you is what I was told by Clark,” Jeremy said. “The Rekvok approached Clark a year ago with an offer he couldn’t refuse. He was told to bring them humans one by one in exchange for our safety. If not, they would hunt all of us down and kill us. Of course, Clark accepted the offer and then confided in me and Lewis. We agreed to help him. But, at least, I didn’t know what happened to the people after we passed them to the Rekvok.”
Rina glared at him. “How could you do this to us? Was that how Sylvia was taken?”
“Sylvia gave us a bit of trouble, but the Rekvok eventually captured her without our help,” Jeremy said.
Rina nearly lunged at Jeremy, but was held back by Sarah. The fury in Rina’s eyes was so clear.
“You will pay for everything you have done to us!” Rina screamed.
“Sephim and Sarah, take Jeremy away and put him in a holding cell,” Celeste ordered. “Do you have something like that?”
Sarah nodded. “What about you?”
Sephim restrained Jeremy’s hands and pushed him out the door into the corridor. Jeremy kept his head down so as to avoid eye contact with anyone. Once word got out about Jeremy’s betrayal, Celeste didn’t know how long he would survive in the underground shelter.
Celeste took the sensor-like device. “I am going to get Tara back. Make sure there are guards around Jeremy’s cell at all times. And, update the Council of my plans.”
“Can I come with you?” Harper asked.
Celeste wasn’t sure if that was a good idea, but given Harper’s genuine concern for Tara and her role in finding Jeremy, she decided to allow it.
Celeste turned to Harper. “We need to go now. I already sent a message to Phog.”
On the way out of the underground shelter Celeste thought about what she had nearly done. What if Jeremy hadn’t believed her? What if he had decided not to cooperate? Would she have gone through with taking out Jeremy’s eye or leg? She didn’t know what she would have done. It had all happened so fast. Sephim must have thought she was trying to trick Jeremy. But was she really? Tara was the closest thing to family she had in the entire galaxy. Would crippling Jeremy have been the right way to get Tara back? She was thankful she hadn’t been forced into that position. Killing aliens was one thing, but she didn’t want to know if she would have the strength to injure another human who wasn’t shooting back at her.
A little while later, they were both inside the ship. Celeste briefed Phog and passed him the sensor-like device. “We found this in Jeremy’s possession.”
“What does it do?” Phog asked.
“I am hoping you can find out,” Celeste said. “But first, what’s the status on locating Tara’s device?”
Harper had taken a seat and was looking around the front of the ship.
“I managed to modify the sensors,” Phog reported. “And I got a weak signal on her device.”
Celeste felt her heart jump in hope. Apparently, Clark hadn’t found the device on Tara. Either that, or Tara had found a clever way to keep the device hidden from her captors.
“How far ahead are they?” Harper inquired.
“Oh I forgot to introduce you,” Celeste said. “Phog, this is Tara’s friend Harper. She helped us locate Jeremy.”
Phog bowed. “Based on my sensor readings, they are only one third of the way to the Rekvok prisoner base. They must be on foot.”
Celeste knew there wasn’t any time to lose. “Get us in the air.”
Phog sat down at the navigation console and started up the ship. Soon they were flying slowly over the terrain. It wouldn’t take long for them to catch up with Clark.
He turned to Celeste. “Do we have a plan?”