Survivors

Escapism

"He's gonna hate me. You can kill me right now." Xavier says.

"He will hate you. That's true. But it doesn't have to be that way." Polois tells him. "You help me destroy Astralis and you can both live. I will make sure he loves you."

"I won't do it." Xavier says.

"You're an idiot." Snarls Polois. "I have you a choice between death and a happy life, and you chose death."

"First of all, you are implying smooching Rowan against his will. I am not down for that. One sided love is not love." Xavier states. "Second, I'm not gonna destroy the damn galaxy so I can make out with a cute boy." He looks at Polois. "Third- you're a dick."

"Suit yourself." He smacks Xavier across the face with the smouldering baton.

"I can't watch this." I say.

"We'll update you." Wessa promises.

"Is nobody gonna talk about Xavier having the hots for Rowan?" Jade asks.

"That would make him feel awkward." Maggie tells her. And she's right. I feel extremely awkward, so I leave for my room.

What the actual dak.

I'm so confused I'm swearing in an alien language. I wanna get my foraw back to Earth, away from all this roje.

I'm even angrier because I am thinking about this instead of someone I am ashamed to admit I actually consider a friend is being tortured on an alien planet.

"We have a plan!" Maggie bursts in.

"Great." I say unenthusiastically.

"The Gorfon technology is controlled by blood. It pricks you every time you need to do something, looking for Gorfon blood. We need to chop off someone's hand or something to get in. You read everything. Then we break out as many people as we can. We don't leave without Xavier. When we get him, we fly off and blow up the planet." Maggie tells me.

"Aren't there nice Gorfonians?" I ask.

"They destroyed our planet, Rowan." Jade narrows her eyes. "So we can destroy theirs."

"Shouldn't we wait for Regeit?" Wessa inquires.

"We're leaving now." Jade announces.

We're soon approaching the planet. It looks huge. The clouds swirl over the surface.

"Why isn't anyone attacking us?" I ask as we go through the clouds towards the surface.

"Because we have something they need." Says Wessa.

"Somebody should stay on the ship to protect Regeit." Maggie tells us.

"Wessa." I say.

"I'm going." She announces. "I want to go."

"I'll stay back." Jade offers. "Wessa can take my armour and rifle. I'll keep the Astralis blaster."

We start to get near to a large building. Our destination.

A video comes on.

"Surrender to Gorfon and the yellow one doesn't get hurt." It's Yardisse. Polois is there, too, and so is Xavier.

"Don't do it!" Xavier says. Polois smacks him with the red hot baton from earlier.

"Do you truly want to take the risk?" Polois asks. Xavier suddenly kicks Yardisse, stealing his knife. He cuts his binds and runs over to a pit.

"Turn off the power or I jump." He threatens.

"Why would I care?" Laughs Polois.

"I'm your leverage. The only reason that they would want to surrender to you. Without me, your job gets a lot harder." He says.