Chapter 78: Dora's Hesitation
James asked first:
"Have all my fleet boarded the cruiser?"
"Yes, they're all inside the Bombardment, and Rigo is coming here now with some of the sleeping people you had inside your little cruiser," she replied after checking the records on one of the screens around her.
"Perfect, what I'm going to do now is slightly similar to what you did before," James said while winking his eye.
"I'm sorry, I didn't get your meaning," she said with a loss.
"Don't worry, you will know now. Make ready for the hyperjump, we need to travel using light speed once we get out of here," James said while he was about to close up his eyes to be prepared to talk with his scepter.
"Wait a sec, where do you want us to go?" Dora hurriedly stopped him while asking this important question.
"Anyway that doesn't lie under the terases emerging empire jurisdiction," James simply replied as if this was something obvious.
"But what are the limits of this empire exactly? Do you have an answer to that?" she asked.
"Oh, you don't get it yet, don't you?" James muttered before looking seriously at her, "everything inside this small sector will be under the complete control of the terases empire in a short time."
The eyes of Dora widened as she softly gasped before saying:
"Are you sure? My associates said they will only control the current Rontag empire plus a few of the known worlds of our resistance forces."
The look over her face plus the way of her speech gave James the impression she wasn't yet fully aware of the full size of the calamity happening here.
"Oh boy!" he muttered as he was struggling inside. He didn't expect Dora not to know the full dark picture, and to explain things in detail for her would take much more time than he currently had.
So, he had to be brief, but again if Dora wasn't convinced by his words, then she might choose a place not safe for him. He knew his enemy would take time to grow up and locate him, however his enemy had the advantage of being mentored.
Unlike him, he would lose anything that made him special when the scepter went off and its energy dried up. Being alone without someone who could help and guide meant only one end for James.
He would lose if he faced this other equal of him, so he needed to run, run as far as he could reach.
"Listen up, I have no time to waste here, however this terases race is historically famous for their brutality and their innate love for invasion and expansion.
They won't settle by the parts you thought of, they would head straight towards the whole space sector, and after achieving this goal they would expand again and again until the whole major sect is under their control.
So, we need to escape to the furthest place here, as far as possible, or else we would be all caught and killed no matter what we tried."
Dora sensed how serious James was, and it was her turn to worry right now. She watched James close up his eyes and be detached from this world. she didn't know what he was planning to do, but her own time was limited as well.
The plans provided by the leading council of the rebels all stated to move in a place nearby here. their vision was logical, as they wanted to be near their old worlds and bases so they could assess the situation further.
They were thinking they had time, supposedly the terases race would be so busy trying to reign over the new territory they had just snatched.
So being on the borders of this new empire would be the golden opportunity to seek for any chance to topple the situation and turn the tables over these terases.
However James just warned her from doing exactly that. She knew James wasn't stable and calm as before, however he was reliable. He had his own vision and weird way to do things, but he was always right.
She didn't know what he was planning to do in order to escape here, but if the warning he just issued to her was true, then everything would be lost.
She glanced towards the people present here as her mind wasn't yet in a state of mind that would help her to think properly. She knew she could just order them and they would reluctantly listen to her.
But what would happen if James was wrong? she would take the whole blame then, and that meant only one thing… she would lose her position as the heir to the rebels throne.
Tormented between her thoughts, Dora stood in her place motionless while her brain was trying to weigh the two options. She stayed there for a couple of minutes before she saw Rigo coming from far with the company of some of his trusted aides.
They were carrying the bodies of unconscious people, Eli, Alex, and Islinda. The three were still unconscious, which was something weird but Rigo wasn't in the mood right now to seek for answers about such issues.
All he cared about was his supreme leader, James. Once he entered the commanding deck, he spotted James at once and then started to move with the droids around him.
They were a mix of races, with their presence to arouse many whispers around them. droids were like a local legend, everyone heard about them but never met one in the flesh before.
And now, in their darkest hour they saw a bunch of them carrying dead looking three bodies with no clue of what was going on.
Rigo didn't bother with them as he noticed James was closing up his eyes. He guessed he was talking to that scepter, the one who started all that fuss. To be honest, Rigo appreciated the scepter's presence at first.
The scepter managed to save James' life in a very desperate moment, however after that James had changed. It was like he was seeing death an eye to an eye, or else what explained all this stress and hurry?
However what possible could threaten James with such a grave degree? James wasn't the only person here trapped in this huge net, and he wasn't even worth mentioning by the meager power under his control.
So there were only two possibilities, droids or scepter. Being discovered was unlikely, however even if people discovered their presence that wouldn't put all that pressure over James' shoulders.
That meant only the scepter was dangerous, more dangerous than he expected. He needed to sit with James and talk with him about that thing, but time wasn't appropriate yet.
He passed and entered the empty area around Dora, who welcomed him by saying:
"I see you made it here fast enough, good."
Her tone was off as she appeared totally dejected. Rigo checked over James' body to make sure he was alright before he asked:
"What's wrong?"
"Your supposedly leader wants me to move away from here," Dora said while waving her hands.
"That's normal, we are escaping after all, right?" Rigo replied with a strange look over his face.
"I know, but he wants to move far away from here, to the end of the galaxy perhaps. He doesn't want to move nearby here," Dora said.
"May I ask what's the difference for you?" Rigo asked after giving the matter a thought. Dora began to explain the dilemma she was having right now. After she ended, Rigo glanced towards James before he muttered:
"I don't know how he knew all this info about terases race, but he is right in every word he said."
"What? Are you sure? How do you know that? These people vanished from the records of history a long time ago. no one can predict their moves," Dora argued back.
Rigo just smiled plainly as he replied:
"You might be true if you were speaking about anyone else but us. We droids in the Rojedia empire had many confrontations with these brutal terases.
I can tell you for sure what James said is just a tiny part of the fact of their nature. They are a horrible race, built on the simplest idea of enslaving other races and making them supreme.
Inside their territories there is no sound other than them. if they sensed any resistance anywhere, they wouldn't hesitate to blow off the whole planet and kill everyone on it.
They are merciless, vicious, have endless greed, plus their uniquely absurd high self esteem and ego that would make them feel they are above the whole universe, and everyone else is destined to serve.
They won't be satisfied by what you think, and they don't need that much time you expect to control all these territories. The best option is to run away, far away, and do this fast, very fast."
The words of Rigo were more shocking than what James said earlier. She felt a sudden fear instead of hesitation. This race seemed far more dangerous than what people here told her.
"But how can they control all this territory so fast? The people here believe they won't be able to control all this area in a year's time!" Dora said.
"One year? They won't take a day to control all the territory here. listen, this race had a trademark procedure to control newly conquered places. They would select randomly highly significant places, like the capital planet, or the main military base planet, and they would make from this place an example of their brutality.
They won't stop, even if the people there begged them for mercy, they won't stop until every single living thing there is devastated by them. everything would be recorded and broadcasted everywhere, so if there was any intention of resisting them it would be abolished and all would kneel in front of them.
In less than a day all your past territories would be conquered, and then they would come back here. we need to run away using that time to a place they can't reach easily until we figure out a way," Rigo said with a strong warning tone, while stressing on every word he said.
"Figure out what?" Dora asked with some panic in her tone.
"Figure out a way to leave this whole great sector. This sector is doomed to fall in chaos under terases hands, and that is a fact," Rigo replied while looking deeply inside her eyes.