Beyond the Empyreal Stars

20.

2o.

Odette didn't expect Diana to still be in the Gallery when she walked through the doorway a few hours later. She was still seated in her chair, staring up at the holographic image of Earth. This image was different, though. Odette noticed as she got closer and closer. Various points were illuminated, but nothing indicated what they were.

"I was wondering when you would come find me after this morning," Diana spoke as Odette took her seat. Diana's eyes met hers through the hologram. "Longer than I expected, you see."

"I needed to...get my mind off of the topic of conversation."

"So you went to watch feeds with Nova and Sebastian."

She sat in silence.

Diana sighed. "What happened on Earth...we were not prepared for it. We did not foresee Comae and his forces having access to Earth's leaders, taking them over like they did before killing them all. There was no trace of their ships in Earthen airspace. We were completely blindsided."

"And now, most of the population has been killed...and you want to get rid of the rest."

Diana didn't change her expression, but a look of regret and doubt flashed in her eyes. "It is the only way to insure..."

But Odette cut in, though she tried to reign herself in from screaming. "There is another option in hunting down Pallas and any other Whispian. Sanitation is not the answer to this problem, especially when the Alliance was for Earth's induction. I still do not understand why we have just let Earth continue to fall instead of allowing what is left the human population to rise up and have us fight with them. I do not understand why you can just sit here and ponder the decision when you and I both have humans on the planet we care for. They are more than just some diplomacy matter."

"You know most of Earth's population is gone, so who is to say they are not also?" she challenged.

Keeping from screaming again, her hands tightened into fists on the glass table. Diana noticed. "We have the means of locating them if they have survived...why have you not tried that before?" Odette questioned.

This time, Diana's expression did change. She raised an eyebrow. "And do you think I have not?"

Her head tilted slightly to the right as she studied the Prime. "Have you?"

Slowly, she nodded. "After Calvin and his son were killed...after we left and came back to Terra...you, Nova, Sebastian, and Padric are not the only ones who have been watching the feeds of Earth's destruction. Of course, I used tech to track them down. And I found them just before I lost them again, only because the probes we had placed all throughout D.C. had been destroyed. I have already deployed more to the area and should be online within a day or two."

Odette's mind was racing. If Duke, Graham, and the others had survived, they could still be alive.

"Send me," she said quickly. "I will scout the area to find them and any other human still alive. Nova and Bas can come, too. And if you will allow us to search the planet for Pallas and any other Whispian, send Padric and the Agents. We can take back the planet."

Diana laughed humorlessly, sweeping her hand across the holographic Earth, changing it to feeds on what the humans were doing to each other and the planet before the Terrians even arrived. "Sure, the majority of the population were not bad, but it was the ones who were that made them look so. Being in the Worlds Alliance was going to make them better."

With every word, it was getting harder and harder to keep hold of her Terrian control. Those human emotions were threatening to burst forth any second.