Trojian Horse
Chapter 31

Hethios jumped to his feet at the sound of the blaring sirens in his laboratory. It was not immediately clear to him what sort of alarm the sirens were meant for. He walked over to a flashing screen installed into a wall, flicked a couple of switches which turned the sirens off the proceeded to study the data coming through on the screen.

It couldn’t be!

Suddenly he grabbed a hand-held screen and ran out of his lab at a terrifying speed headed for the throne room where he hoped the Queen would be.

The Queen was in the throne room, having an intense conversation with Ti-lo about the best choice of cloak for a queen of the Vulpeculae. Hethios startled them when he raced into the room furiously waving a screen above his head.

“My queen, we have a problem.”

“What are you talking about?

“A few years ago, I set up sensors on the perimeter of the city, a sort of experiment to detect plasma engines and radioactivity from jump gates, as you know they emit a very specific frequency and knowing that none of the other inhabitants on Trojian are yet capable of such advanced transportation systems I thought this would be a useful way of ensuring that no one using such advanced systems would creep up on us. I meant to put the systems into orbit once I had completed my experiments. Five minutes ago, one of those sensors was triggered.”

“And you know for sure it is not one of ours? Maybe someone broke protocol and took one of our ships out?” the Queen asked trying her best to look calm though the alarm was fairly evident on her face. Ti-lo was stunned by the mention that they had any sort of ships capable of flight. She meant to interject to seek clarity but thought better of it.

“I thought you would ask that. So I brought this,” Hethios said turning on the screen in his hand and playing them back video footage of the intrusion.

“What are we looking at Hethios?” the Queen asked.

“I recently put cameras on around the sensors. There, in the corner of the frame. There is the ship. A drone ship most likely.”

“Has one of the indigenous populations developed this technology?” she asked.

“No. It is far worse than that my Queen.”

“What is it? I know that look on your face. It can’t be. It just cannot be.”

“My Queen, it is a Dracien scouting drone ship. I am sure of it. They have their own unique signature emissions. I made sure. I don’t think they know that we detected them. The drone surveyed the area and flew away. It is beyond the limits of the Capital now. It headed West.”

“No, no, no….”

The Queen buried her face in her hands and though she desperately tried to reject the information, she knew it was all true. Reeger had found them.

“I will try to replace where he is on the planet, if he’s here. We need to start thinking about what happens next if he’s here.”

“Is escape out of the question?” the Queen asked after a lengthy silence.

“We could. But Arien is still out there. We need to know if he is still alive. He’s the main reason we ended up here in the first place. We made an oath to protect him.”

“What do we do?! I never thought this day would come. Not again” she said her voice quivering slightly.

“We prepare. We knew this day was coming. We knew we couldn’t walk away from this forever. We started the resistance and it seems fitting that we should be the ones to end this war, one way or another.”

“I will tell them. I will tell our people we are at war, yet again,” the Queen said, collapsing into her throne.