Kampa [city], Mur [planet], Sapuk [star system]
03 June; 07:14:22 Hours
Bang. The stairwell door to the roof slammed against the wall as Sara stormed out and straight toward Dax, who sat on the edge of the roof with her legs swinging back and forth. Drake, Theo, and Cole were directly behind her as Sara’s face was contorted and fiery red. Sara’s left hand was resting on her baby bump while she wagged her right finger at Dax.
“What did you do?” Sara screamed, “For the love of God, what did you do? Huh? What did you do?”
“<Did her body not smash into the ground before you?>” Dax chuckled as she stayed sitting and swinging her legs like nothing was wrong.
Sara’s eyes squinted. “W-what?”
“I said,” she now glanced back over her shoulder at Sara, repeating herself but sternly, “Didn’t her body hit the ground in front of you?”
“We needed her! She had vital information about the asset, dammit!”
“She wouldn’t tell us anything, even if she did know where the asset was.”
“How the hell would you know? Huh?” Sara barked before her attention turned to Theo, and she snapped at him, “What aren’t you telling us?”
“Come on, what is your issue?” Cole said as he stepped toward Sara.
“Theo and this Shim are hiding something!” Sara yelled.
Dax’s eyes lit up bright blue as she jumped up and turned toward Sara, her left hand rested on Aelysah that was collapsed and holstered on her side while her nostrils flared over and over. Drake was quick though, he placed himself in front of his wife as he glared at the Princess and tilted his head slightly as to warn her. Though Dax didn’t seem fazed by his attempt to threaten her.
Cole threw his arms up. “We’ve already had this discussion! Having it again isn’t going to magically make it that they didn’t tell us somethin—”
“They knew each other,” Theo reluctantly said, and everyone’s attention instantly shifted to him.
“SEE!” Sara yelled before turning back to Dax.
“We asked you, Theo, we asked you if there was anything we should know and you told us no,” Cole said while he rubbed the back of his neck and subtly shook his head.
Drake bowed his head and closed his eyes. “Dammit.”
“You three don’t trust her,” Theo rationalized, “and if I told you that then, we would’ve never been able to agree on acting on what Throx told me.”
“And we’re still at square one, dammit,” Sara said and stomped her feet. “She killed Daleeha and any info we needed to move forward, it died with her because the Princess was always going to kill her! Always!”
“Yes,” Dax simply agreed.
For the first time since storming onto the roof, Sara went silent. Her mouth went agape and her eyes fluttered while she watched Dax jump down from the ledge. Dax’s cloak flapped in the wind, she folded her arms in front of her chest and just stared at the four. Her head then tilted slightly to her right, as if to ask, “What now?”
“Yes? You’re,” Sara stammered, “you’re just going to, to admit to it?”
“Is it wrong in your species to tell what is?”
Theo couldn’t help himself as he chuckled.
“This, this isn’t funny, Theo!” Drake said.
“It’s kind of funny,” he denied him.
“Are we done?” Dax sincerely asked.
“Done? No!” Sara said and shook her head. “You eliminated our only lead on finding the asset, and you think it’s okay!”
“I killed a blight on this Uni,” Dax explained, “She and her father are responsible for the deaths of millions of my people and others. She deserved what I did to her.”
Sara stepped toward her. “Your kind is responsible for millions of deaths too! Would it be okay if I killed you? Huh?“
“Sara,” Theo now growled but Drake stepped toward him.
“Brother, calm down. Sara has a point, especially with the fact that Dax screwed US!”
Cole sat down on one of the ventilation ducts where he looked at them all, saying, “This isn’t going to work if we can’t even work together.”
“This can work!” Theo snapped.
“HOW?” Sara pointed to Dax and yelled, “How when we can’t trust her!”
“I trust her!”
“Your dick trusts her!”
Cole threw his head back and groaned; Drake rubbed the bridge of his nose, as the tension that was already thick became staticky and near unbearable.
Theo’s eyes narrowed and his teeth gritted. “Don’t… Don’t, Sara!”
“I’m just telling the truth, Theo.”
“W-what does that mean?” Dax asked as her eyes squinted and she looked back and forth between the two. “Theo?”
“No, you’re being bitter because I wouldn’t give you a piece of information that I knew would only reaffirm your already determined hatred of her!”
“Ohhhhhh, for the love of God! Get off your high horse, Theo!” Sara aggressively ran her hands through her hair, telling him, “If you told us she knew Daleeha like she did, we could’ve planned differently! And if we did, she’d still be alive and we’d have the information we need to find the asset!”
“She didn’t know where the asset is,” Dax said and rolled her eyes, pulling a Tether from a pouch on her belt that she waved around. “If you don’t believe me, fine! Check her Tether for yourselves!”
Again, the four all went silent as they looked at Dax. Sara’s eyes grew large; Cole rested his face into his right palm; Drake rubbed his left temple, and Theo’s simmering rage morphed into a loud echoing belly laugh. Sara glanced back at Theo before she returned to Dax and asked, “You, you had her Tether all this time?”
“Yes,” Dax answered.
“W-why didn’t you tell us this before?”
“Because it wasn’t important, she didn’t know anything we need to know.”
“But, but this changes things,” Sara softly admitted.
Dax looked at her with her left eye narrowing and right eyebrow-raising. “Why? You already think I’m my father. Why would the fact that I was telling you the truth change things?”
“I don’t think that you’re your father… Theo wouldn’t have put his life on the line to save you if you were.”
Dax tossed the Tether to Sara. “So now you trust him?”
Sara caught it, she looked down at it in her hands before she glanced over to Theo and then looked back at Dax as she admitted, “I’ve always trusted Theo… Things have just been complicated, and, and it’s not good for anyone to only have people who always agree with everything you do around you.”
“Okay!” Cole shot up from the duct, interrupting the two as he said, “Now that we’re all on good terms again, can we get back to Talon and regroup off world? GDC is going to be crawling all over this place soon!”
“He’s got a point,” Drake said as he nodded his head. “I’m not interested in a round two with them, not at the moment.”
“Alright, let’s go,” Theo agreed and motioned toward the stairwell.
Drake placed his hand on the small of Sara’s back, guiding her as Cole opened the door. Though Theo made his way toward Dax who hadn’t moved. She instead looked down to her right, her brow scrunched and her eyes were large. He stopped in front of her, she didn’t hesitate to rest her forehead upon his chest and she whispered, “I’m sorry.”
“You better have a good reason for saying that.”
“You lied to your team because of me… I’m sorry,” she still whispered and then slowly looked up at him.
He smiled. “Oh, Sparky, you know me… I suck at lying.”
Dax squinted at him and puckered her lips. “Are you making fun of me?”
“Noooooo, I’d never do that,” he chuckled.
She playfully hit Theo on the chest before they started toward the stairwell. Though she looked at Theo, saying, “I did not know that your species’ penis has cognitive abilities.”
Theo let out a loud laugh. “I’m sorry, what?”
“Sara… She said that you were thinking with your penis - I didn’t know that it had a brain.”
“Sparky, no. That was a figure of speech. I promise.”
Dax threw her arms up before they entered the stairwell. “I don’t understand you Humans and your banter. I just don’t.”