The Last Atonian

Chapter 21:

"Whoa, wait," Xander said, looking from Veerna to Leem. "She's your sister? But you're so ... so ..."

"Unflappable," Don supplied.

If Veerna had been in the mood, she would have glared at him. However, considering two things—first, that she really didn't feel like it, and second, that he wasn't wrong—she didn't say anything. Leem, however, gave a small smile. "I'm afraid that you have the wrong impression about Veerna," she said.

"She's a killer," Suzan said flatly.

"Perhaps," Leem replied. "But the fact remains that Veerna is my sister. And as sisters, it is my responsibility to stand by her, no matter what. But she wasn't always that way."

"She wasn't?" Xander looked up, surprised.

Leem looked at Veerna in a disapproving way. "You never told them?" she said.

Veerna shrugged. "Why bother? I planned to rid myself of them as soon as possible. That is, until he got hurt," she added, jerking her head at Xander.

Xander's eyes widened. "Me?" he repeated.

"I think you'd better start at the beginning," Leem urged her.

That was the last thing Veerna wanted to do, but she nodded. She owed it to them to do so. "Alright. Fine. About twelve years ago, me and Sareen were very close. We were closer than me and Leem were, probably because Leem was half my age at the time. We did everything together. Played games, laughed our way through council meetings, and mostly had a great time." She could see the disbelief on Don's face. It was the reason she didn't want to kill or even hurt Sareen. "We were stupid. If we'd just kept being stupid kids, none of this ever would have happened." Bitterly, she waved her hand around her.

After giving herself a minute, she went on. "We did something stupid. Sareen dared me to go to the security room here on Senti, and stupidly, I agreed, but only if she agreed to come with me. So the two of us left the capital building and made our way through the city. First of all, it was stupid, because my father doted on me. If I'd been captured, they could have held me hostage and demanded millions of credits off my father and he would have agreed. But I was only about eight and I didn't even think about it. Instead, we just skipped off like the naïve little children we were."

"You can't be blamed," Leem interrupted softly.

"Can't I be?" Veerna retorted savagely. She plowed on, "It was shockingly easy for two inexperienced little kids to get into the security room. We both celebrated our success, but we weren't sure what to do next. It was underwhelming. Just a room full of buttons, levers, and knobs. So Sareen and I just looked at them, wondering what this one and that one did."

The room was utterly silent as they all listened to her. It made Veerna feel oddly exposed, which for her was incredibly weird. "Finally, I saw this big, tempting red button. And you know what I have to do when I see one of them? I've got to hit it. And I did."

"Oh, boy," Don mumbled.

Veerna shot him a glare. "Don't you even start," she snapped. "Don't you even think about giving me a psychological chat! I don't need you to analyze me. I hit the button and it lowered the shields around Senti. Try as we might, neither of us could figure out how to turn them back on again. Sareen abandoned me. Already, the space pirates were arriving and we both knew what we'd done. What ... what I'd done. She screamed at me before running off. I didn't know what to do. I was completely frozen. I didn't move, didn't speak ... I just stood there. Slavers came and took me. I escaped before any ... lasting ... harm could be done, but the fact remained that I destroyed my world. The whole city came crashing down that day. My parents, the guards, the council, everyone I had ever know, dead. Leem hid and survived. Sareen was rescued by Federation troopers days later."