Page 178 of Claimed By the Condemned Alien

The words struck because they were fair. Kesta opened the route logs again. “Then we do both. Keth keeps an internal team. You choose one person from the families who opposed me. Tavi audits every route marker against the old mechanical maps. No one person controls the evidence.” Jessa studied her. “And the search party?”

“Leaves only after the first suspect matrix is posted publicly.”

It was not speed. It was accountability. Later, alone beside the communications alcove, Kesta replayed Elara’s seven-second image. Bruising at the temple. A tremor in her left hand. A reflection behind her that might have been a medical arch—or a shuttle canopy. Dreven stopped at the threshold. “You have watched it eleven times.”

“Twelve.”

“What do you see?”

“A possible exit vehicle.”

His stillness deepened.

“If it flies,” Kesta said, “it may be a way off this planet.”

“For you.”

“For any of us who can fit.”

He entered only after she nodded. “And if you find it?”

“I decide then.”

Pain flashed across his face and was controlled away. “Good.” She turned from the image. “You do not mean that.”

“I mean that your choice must be real. I do not mean that I will survive it gracefully.”

Kesta crossed the space between them. This time she initiated, placing her palm flat against the warm scales over his heart.

“Do not make me comfort you for offering me freedom,” she said.

“I will not.”

“Do not withdraw because you are afraid I may use it.”

His heart beat hard under her hand. “That is more difficult.”

“I know.”

He covered her hand with his but did not trap it. They stood that way until the Elara image looped again, freedom and danger reflected in the same glass. Kesta copied the line to a separate slate.

Tavi later enlarged the reflection behind Elara and found two details: a cracked navigation pane and a maintenance glyph used on short-range prison shuttles. The craft might not reach another system, but it could reach orbit, an imperial relay, or a rebel pickup point. Kesta copied the image into her private evidence file. For the first time, freedom was not an abstract word Dreven promised to honor. It had a hull, a damaged canopy, and a probable fuel requirement. The possibility frightened her almost as much as captivity because it meant a future choice could no longer be postponed indefinitely.

For the first time since landing, Elara was not merely a memory.

She was a trail.

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

The Outer Ruins

Dreven lost the first argument about the expedition. He lost the second more publicly. The council met in the ration hall with Hallow Camp’s relatives lining the walls and Rath’s neutral-ground message projected above the table. Kesta presented the drone evidence, the route reference, and the note about Nara. Sera confirmed that the survivor blood found near Hallow Camp matched the broad profile of a malnourished human female. Keth proposed a six-person expedition to the outer ruins before the next ash storm erased the trail. Dreven proposed waiting until Red Basin provided maps.

Jessa said, “Rath will provide maps after he knows what we want hidden on them.” Pela recorded that as the first objection. Kesta added, “The trail is already days old.” Dreven looked at her. “You are not going.” The room changed. He heard it immediately. So did everyone else. Kesta kept her voice level. “On what authority?”

“Medical risk.”

“Sera?”