Tempered by Love

Chapter 8 Can I Trust You?

Daniel's cheeks puffed with a harsh breath and his eyebrows merged, giving him an almost comical expression. "The lot of you have lost your bloody minds," he finally said. "Do you have any idea how many governments are looking for the source of the alien tech that keeps showing up? Torchwood just arrested and prosecuted one of England's wealthiest businessmen for reverse engineering this stuff into weapons. How long --how much money have you -- god, Demetri. They will put you in jail and Tomašis and his people on Jura Island for this. Bloody hell!" 

 Daniel stormed toward the entrance, his mind racing with a multitude of scenarios, none of which ended well. Outside in the dying light, he scrubbed a hand over his face and drew a deep breath. This was not the time for emotionalism. He turned on his heels and stormed back in. "How long?" he fired off at Demetri.

 Demetri glared at Daniel, his face flushed with anger. "Since right after the metal monsters began disappearing. We found dead ones if you could consider them ever alive. They had all sorts of parts lying around, so we took them to sell. We live by our wits, Daniel. We know where to go when we need... to sell things. It didn't take long to find buyers. It wasn't very profitable; still isn't, but it helps us survive. The money pays for repairs and new trucks," he answered. "What have we done wrong? Selling this makes it easier to avoid stealing, and that keeps us safe."

 Daniel blew a harsh breath. Demetri was right, this was about survival. Their survival, the Vshak's survival, everyone's survival was at stake. The question now, just how many places could the ships have come down, and how much tech remained unaccounted for? 

"Tomašis, I never asked, how many escape pods did you have?"

 The Vshak commander paled, his expression distant. "Originally, we managed to get ten away with six people on each shuttle. Two were caught in the ship's explosion and two burnt coming through the atmosphere at too steep an angle. The locals thought it was a meteor. Three of us crashed together. I lost contact with the fourth as soon as we came through the atmosphere. After losing half my crew in space, I lost eighteen more here. I heard each of them screaming in my head. You are not the only one who has suffered great loss, my friend."

 Daniel straightened. The comment struck him hard, forcing him to shift his eyes to a spot on the cave wall. "I'm so, so sorry if you thought I don't know how hard your losses are. Believe me, I do, more than you can imagine. I might know something about the one you lost track of. Before I showed up, a shuttle came down in Wales with one unconscious survivor. As far as I'm aware, that survivor is still in London. Torchwood put the dead in a cryogenic stasis and locked the shuttle in a deep vault."

 Tomašis faced him full on. "That's not possible, no matter how far away a survivor is, I would hear them."

 "Not if he or she believes you're dead and isn't calling out. You're telepathic, not psychic," Daniel answered.

 "Daniel, you can't tell anyone about this, they are already suspicious of other families. Coji and her team are still fighting to get them travel permits so they can journey here for winter," Demetri snarled.

 Daniel ran both hands through his hair trying hard not to yell. "I don't have a choice. People buying this... stuff are not trying to benefit mankind. An alien was tortured to death by that fool in Brittany. The idiot wanted to find out how much the poor sot could stand and how fast he would heal before he died. He used this type of technology to reverse engineer weapons and satellites capable of hacking into computers around the world. He tried to have someone killed to eliminate the chances of getting caught. That's why he's sitting in prison."

 Demetri glared at the man he considered a friend. He clenched his hand into a fist. "Daniel, don't make me regret letting you in. Don't be another gadjé out to put my people in jail," he said.