Pilot Merrick hovered the small shuttle over the dome while co-pilot Rask called in the flight plan and requested clearance to enter the dome.

Council Leader Vorik remained silent in deep thought, not even aware they had already reached the surface and were waiting for entry into the dome. He hadn't wanted leadership when Niki gave it to him, but he took it anyway because of multiple requests from not only his people, but humans as well. He would prefer to stay in his cabin with his mate, Alice. She had given birth to twins, one male and one female. He couldn't, though; there was too much work to be done.

The dome finally opened, allowing the shuttle to pass through before it sealed shut again. They had to stay prepared. They had a lot of people, both human and Ramesian, to protect inside the dome if anyone, like Travis, attacked. The domes had been designed to withstand even the large blasts their own ship could produce. One of their engineers had built it to withstand as much as possible after the Kreq had attacked their home planet. The dome's blast shields could even withstand the Kreq's saucer's strongest blast, now.

When the Kreq attacked their home planet, something had stopped the attack. Vorik didn't know why or how, but the Kreq had just left, leaving them in peace. He couldn't explain it. They just stopped and left.

During the attack, the planet had taken on too much damage, however. It took only seventeen short years for their planet to die out, and they had to leave it. That's when Council Leader Tosh, at the time, told them to come to this planet. Vorik was the fleet commander during that time. He hadn't known the name of the target planet until one of the humans told him it was called Earth.

When Tosh sent them here, he told them that the people on this planet were identical to Kreq and that they were planning to come after his people and destroy them. Tosh's order was to destroy them first and take their planet since it was so fertile. He even went as far as saying to destroy them before they destroy us. He now knew that it was all a lie. They didn't even have space travel, and they were still using satellites to communicate with each other on the planet. Tosh just wanted an excuse for his people to follow his orders, even though very few agreed with them. It didn't feel right, wiping out an entire population. It hadn't sat right with them, but they believed that they had to follow orders. It was a compulsion to follow the orders if he thought about what had happened back then.

It was true that the humans were similar in appearance to the Kreq. Only their skin told them they weren't Kreq. After hearing Mia talk about the stories her father told her, he had to put everything into a whole new perspective. The Kreq men were completely controlled in every way by their leader, Commander Grev. None of them had any choice in their actions because of the serum that they had been injected with. As for the females, they meant nothing to Commander Grev. They were completely useless to him.

Council Leader Vorik waited for the shuttle doors to open and for Merrick and Rask to finish their docking sequence. They exited the shuttle once they completed everything that needed to be done.

Once out of the shuttle, they started toward the clinic where Medic Kaul had prepared a station set up to drain the zombies of the Kreqs' toxins.

Now that they knew it wasn't technically a toxin, the attempt to make a vaccine and a cure was abandoned. Medic Kaul was frustrated that it all had been a waste of time. In the end, they had decided to capture and contain the zombies and hold them so that they could drain the serum from their bodies one by one. With each zombie they drained, they saved a life. Each life they saved was a possible mate for their people. Aleigha was proof of that. She had been the very first zombie to be cured by the toxins being drained.

It had worked for nearly all of them. There had been a few that draining them had killed them. Medic Kaul had no idea why. Fortunately, it was only a couple and not all of them.

Council Leader Vorik stepped into the clinic; Kaul turned, making the gesture of respect, then handed him a reader after tapping on the screen a few times to bring up the information that he wanted Vorik to see.

Vorik took the reading and looked at the screen, and read the information provided. Once finished, he looked up at Kaul and smiled. "The controlling serum can be drained from any of us. That's a good thing."

"It doesn't work that way with the Kreq. If Mia gets infected, I can do nothing to help her. It is impossible to drain the serum from Kreq. It has to be dissipated by the bond," Medic Kaul explained. "I've run multiple simulations and found no other way to drain the serum if she is infected."

"Perhaps Renn is her mate, and we just have to wait until she turns eighteen to find out?" Rask suggested. "She is attached to him. He's the only one. Everyone else she shies away from."

Council Leader Vorik shook his head. "I don't think he's her mate. He is very careful with her, speaking to her as if she were a scared child, which, in a sense, she is. He never forces or orders anything from her. He asks her gently, giving her the option to say no. He has never treated her any other way. He is very good with her, but I don't think he's her mate. I think he is a perfect caregiver. He would be that way with anyone he is sent to care for. He's a natural, even."

"If she won't leave his side, how is she supposed to find her mate?" Medic Kaul asked.

Council Leader Vorik sighed loudly. "Even if she does find her mate, I'm not sure she will accept him. Travis did a lot of damage to her. Even her insides were damaged from how brutally he raped her. She's not going to want anyone to touch her that way."

"What about offering to train her in self-defense so she has the confidence to protect herself if she needs to?" Rask asked. It was more of a suggestion. Being able to protect oneself usually brings at least a small amount of self-confidence.

Council Leader Vorik's comm link buzzed, notifying him that someone was calling. He opened the link. A male voice hummed through the comm link. "Sir, a small, unknown shuttle craft was seen landing nearby. In the brief time our scanners picked it up, we could only identify that it wasn't ours. It dropped off our scanners quickly; we no longer see it. It could be cloaked, sir."

"Send over the last known coordinates," Vorik ordered.

Once Vorik received the coordinates, he headed out of the clinic. The previous conversation was completely forgotten. "So much for overseeing the construction," Council Leader Vorik complained, rushing toward his shuttle. He lifted his wrist comm to speak into his comm unit. "I need a team to go to my shuttle, now," Vorik ordered, then continued to his shuttle. Merrick and Rask were following closely behind him.

When they reached the shuttle, Merrick stepped in with Rask behind him. They geared up in full body armor before starting the flight sequence.

Vorik moved to the front of the shuttle, positioning himself behind Merrick and Rask, using the backs of their chairs for stability so he could look outside the large window at the front of the shuttle.

Merrick flew the shuttle over the coordinates. A cloaked vessel was hiding in a ravine. The slight shimmer of the force field around their shuttle identified their exact location. "Don't be obvious; we know they're there. It will give us time to prepare for battle if they think we're oblivious to their existence," Vorik stated through the comm link.

"Yes, Sir," the commanding officer of their team responded.

"Scan the cloaking shield, but make it look like you're scanning the entire area," Vorik ordered the team commander.

A few moments later, the team commander reported. "The cloaking shield is Kreq tech, sir. What are your orders?"

"Did your scans show more than one vessel?" Vorik asked through the comm link.

"No, sir. By the size of the vessel, it's a scout." The team commander reported. "What are your orders, Sir?"

"Head back to the dome. We need to prepare. If there's a scout ship, a disk is hiding in space. If they know we know they're there, we won't have time to prepare ourselves for battle," Vorik responded.

"Yes, Sir," the team commander acknowledged, then the comm link went silent.

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