Tears fell as she turned and left the clearing.
Chapter Twenty
They would be launching soon. Inferno, Tigre, Shadow, Psy, and especially Wingman, had urged him to go after his mate, but Chameleon couldn’t forget the horror and betrayal in Kevanne’s shocked eyes. How could anything he’d say change how she felt about him? His actions, however unintentional, had led to the deaths of millions.
After Tigre had shared what he’d learned from Mysk, Chameleon should be elated, but all he could think about was that he’d lost Kevanne. Not just her, but her love and her respect. She would always remember him as a mass murderer. He sank onto his bunk in despair. He didn’t blame her for running away, for hating him. He’d despised himself for the longest time. He didn’t blame Wingman, either. You’d be a fool to trust a Xeno.
So when Wingman had apologized, he had forgiven him.
“Chameleon?” The Avian’s voice bellowed through the communication system into his cabin.
Forgiveness didn’t mean he was ready to talk to anybody. The briefing had delivered unbelievable positive news, but even that couldn’t override the loss, the numbness.
“I know you’re in your cabin. Get your scaled blue tail to the bridge,” Wingman said. “You need to see something.”
“What is it?” he asked. The energy-matter transformer core had worked like a charm. Once Shadow installed it, they’d cloaked the Castaway and were running a pre-flight check prior to liftoff.
“Kevanne. She’s outside.”
“You mean, here?”
“Yes. Here.”
Chameleon sprang off his bunk, charged down the passage, and burst onto the bridge. The feed from the drone showed Kevanne disappearing down the service road.
“She couldn’t see the ship,” Wingman said. “She thinks we left. Hurry! Go to her. Don’t let your mate get away. Fix the mess I created so I don’t have to feel so guilty.”
Cam flew from the bridge then burned a precious minute to return. “If all goes well—”
“We won’t expect you back tonight.” Wingman grinned. “I’ll tell Tigre to hold the ship until you return. There’s no rush anymore. In light of the news about the refugees—”
Chameleon didn’t wait for him to finish the sentence. He ran for the transport bay. He hit the open hatch button, hopped on the scooter, and zoomed after her.
He spotted her, head down, trudging along the graveled path. “Kevanne! Wait! Kevanne!”
She froze. Spun around. “Cam!”
The scooter landed with a thump, and he jumped off and ran.
She flew into his arms. “I’m so sorry. I’m so sorry.”
He smothered her apology with kisses. “It’s all right. It’s all right.”
“It’s not.” She clung to him. “I know you wouldn’t kill people.”
He hugged her against his chest, inhaling her scent. His heart thumped. He didn’t deserve her, didn’t deserve this, but herian, he’d take it. “I need to explain.”
“No, you don’t. I’m sorry. I know the kind of man you are.”
He grasped her shoulders. “No, I do need to explain because our future and our past has changed. It’s a long story. Can we go back to your house?”
“Yes! Oh, yes!”
He’d transformed to the man from the billboard, and she snuggled up against him on the scooter, her breasts pressed against his back, her thighs gripping his hips, her arms around his waist. After the cloaking shield activated, they zipped to her house in record time.
He stowed the scooter in the garage, assumed his normal form, and clasped her hand, unwilling to be separated for even a minute. Inside, he pulled her to him for a kiss he couldn’t resist, and then he led her to the sofa. “Thank you for coming back for me. For being willing to listen.”
“I love you, Cam. I’m ashamed of how I reacted. How I judged you.”
“I love you, too. You need to know it all, and you can now because of recent changes in our status.”
“I don’t understand why you didn’t defend yourself. I looked at you thinking for sure you would deny everything Wingman said, but you never said a word.”
“Because I am responsible. Unintentionally, I set the bombardment in motion.” He took a breath and plunged into the full explanation. “The Xeno Consortium is an alliance of beings who have created other beings by collecting, merging, and replicating DNA. I told you how they started life on many, many planets. What you didn’t know is that they are the most powerful entity in the universe—and they intend to stay that way. Eons ago, they created life and planted it on ’Topia. The ’Topians evolved beyond expectations, to the extent that within a few millennia, they would have the ability to create and manipulate life themselves. The masters feared becoming the mastered and decided to euthanize their creation. I was the lone dissenting vote.”
“So you’re not responsible!”
An entire planet of people had died. With the exception of the few thousands he’d managed to save, an entire civilization had been wiped out. He couldn’t, wouldn’t, minimize the situation.
“No, I am. It was unintentional, but to use an Earth metaphor—I put ’Topia on the consortium’s radar screen.”
Chameleon pressed his lips together. “In retrospect, signs of what the council intended to do were there long before the vote. Everything on ’Topia was scrutinized, analyzed, and documented. They became the subject of frequent discussions. I knew the High Council was concerned, but I didn’t realize the situation was as serious as it was. Many millennia had passed since the consortium had destroyed a project, a civilization.”
“But how were you responsible?”
“I monitored galactic communication and performed threat analyses, reporting to the council on any potential trouble areas—wars, insurrections, invasions, famine.
“I’d become aware of a planet that was foundering, its civilization in danger of dying out. I reported the matter to the council, with a comparison to the ’Topian’s rapid progress. It was just a footnote mentioning that ’Topians had exceeded forecasted maturation, but it alarmed the council. Unfortunately, I had moved on to my next project.” He twisted his mouth. “The next thing I knew, the council had deemed ’Topia an AOC—an area of concern, and handed management over to the planetary proctor for further investigation. I knew then the ’Topians were in serious trouble.
“I recruited allies to assist with possible relocation and searched for other worlds to accept the people while gathering a fleet of rescue ships.”
“How could you relocate an entire planet of people?”
“I couldn’t. It was too late. Logistically, there’s no way to transport millions quickly and secretly. The only chance of survival was to fight off an attack. However, the ’Topians were pacifists, and convincing them to shore up their military was no easy task. I intended to help them, to divert Xeno weapons to ’Topia. I had a contact in the ’Topian government. I knew him as Wisp—which I’ve since discovered was Shadow. I urged him not to trust the Xeno Consortium and to tighten their defenses. At the same time, I managed to sneak about 10,000 people off ’Topia and send them to haven planets. It was a fallback plan. If I failed, at least, the ’Topian species and civilization would survive and hopefully build itself up again. Well, I failed.”