C3-G12 (Book 1, Terraform)

XXV

            It's a rush of bodies and nerves as we all hurry to the main hall, anxious to hear what Telenoch has to say after his trip. We all tumble through the door, falling over one another. The guys come in shortly after we do, rushing into the entrance to meet us.

"Has anyone seen Telenoch and his entourage?" Jax asks, looking around the room.

We each shake our heads and look at Bartlett and Halloway who stand at the back of the room. "The secure room, they're waiting for you."

"Serina," A voice hisses behind me as we move to the back of the hall.

Slowing down, I let everyone walk past until only Lorna and I are left. Once we're alone, Lorna looks around, worry written across her face. "Lorna, what is it?"

"None of my people alerted me of movement at the borders."

I fail to understand her meaning, unsure of the significance. "What do you mean?"

"I mean that either my people didn't tell me of a perimeter breach as they should've, or we have a hole in our security." She looks in the direction of the secure room where we're to meet with Telenoch then shakes her head. "I have no doubt that my people would've alerted me which would mean that we have a hole, and Telenoch knows about it and hasn't told us."

There's suddenly a tight feeling of pressure on my heart. To think, the people we're supposed to be working with could be keeping important information from us. I take a deep breath and shake my head, there's any number of things that could explain why he hasn't informed us of the breach.

"Let's keep this between the two of us for now, yeah? We'll give him a chance to tell us and if he doesn't, we'll have to tell the others and go from there."

She hesitates, looking between me and the door. With her fists clenched, she nods and with that, we join the others.

The door seals behind us and there's a moment of stiff silence. We each shift, finding our own spots. "What took the two of you so long?"

I raise an eyebrow at Astrid, crossing my arms as I lean back against a wall. "We'll talk about it tonight," I mumble under my breath, making sure only she can hear me.

"Thank you for seeing me," Telenoch says as he steps forward. "I thought it was important to speak with you all immediately."

He stops speaking and looks at each of us. The silence pricks at my patience. "Are you going to tell us what you wanted to say or are you going to continue to make us wait?" Jax rolls his eyes, exhaustion making him irritable. "So much so for 'immediately', eh?"

Astrid pales at his tone. She quickly throws out her hands and shakes her hand. "I'm sorry for his attitude, Telenoch. We, humans, are often...irritable when we don't get enough sleep."

Telenoch nods with a small smile before speaking softly in Celx. "Of course, thank you for the clarification, young scholar." He follows with the Galactic Common translation.

There's another moment of wordless tension, everyone growing more irritated by the minute. "Telenoch, please, it's the middle of the night and we'll need to mull over whatever you tell us before any of us has a chance to go back to sleep."

"Right, I often forget how much sleep you humans need." He lowers his hood and holds his hands in front of him. "I met with Huia,"

There's a collective moment of horror upon hearing the name of someone Telenoch himself has said was previously well ingrained in the ranks of the Loyalists. Huia, formerly knowns as Lady Grah before she was stripped of her title for openly supporting the Loyalists, was the disgraced niece of the reigning King and Queen of the Celxians.