The Space Empress He Craved

Chapter 88

POV: Lyra

Orion groaned in frustration when I stopped him from kissing me on the lips. Christian chuckled while Juan pressed back a smile.

I pushed myself off the table, joining the rest of the alliance on their feet. Orion held me firmly by my waist to make sure I didn't go any further. He kissed my temple before turning to everyone and saying, "Wu Bi Corp is a company that Lyra, Christian, I and a few others have been investigating for a few days. When we hit a dead end, Christian and I pulled some strings. But our contacts haven't been able to dig up anything yet. He..." his head gestured at the rogue in the next room, "...seems to have given us the fastest ticket to get to the bottom of what we're investigating."

Zelena spoke, "Your Eminence, I don't mean to pry but I have to ask: this investigation, does it involve the safety of our stations?" Every Kaelari in the room was visibly worried for their respective stations.

Orion furrowed his eyebrows as he matched their worry. "Before today, it didn't. Not directly at least."

"What does that mean, Your Eminence?" Toby asked. Tate nudged his Specialist for wanting to poke into government issues.

Orion saw it so he said, "No, it's alright, Commander Tate. It's only natural to worry about the safety of your stations. Well, what we were investigating on Wu Bi Corp was concerning the provision of aid after a Rogue attack. This rogue here is pointing us to the source of the attacks instead. He and his kind seem to have a good-enough system in place to threaten the safety of our people. The fact that they had enough members to be ranked is just..."

Orion sighed in dismay as his hand ran through his hair in frustration. I placed my hand on his arm and my thumb started stroking that area in soothing motions before Orion continued, "It's just unbelievable. I'm embarrassed to say that I didn't manage to find them before they cost the lives of so many innocent people."

I uttered firmly, "Orion, you didn't know. No one did. Stop blaming yourself. You heard what he said about credentials. The key was to be untraceable."

Toby, being more comfortable than most since the Emperor was his best friend's match, said, "And let's face it, Your Eminence. You have two very useless ministers running the Defense Ministry. There was no oof—"

Tate elbowed Toby in his abdomen as the Commander hissed softly, "Toby, now you have to apologize."

Orion chuckled lightly as he said, "Even if he does, I wouldn't accept it, Commander Tate. Specialist Tobias is right. But those ministers will be gone soon enough. This decision was made a few days ago but we're keeping it quiet until we have all the evidence we need."

The alliance members were surprised at this revelation but their shock was quickly followed by smiles and excitement.

Lovelace muttered in satisfaction, "About void-damned [damn] time."

"Very sorry it took this long, Commander Lovelace." Orion uttered sincerely. Everyone except Christian and me couldn't believe what they just heard. The Emperor was apologizing to her? He was apologizing to a Kaelari?

Commander Lovelace recovered from her own astonishment before smiling gratefully. "As Lyra said, my Emperor. You didn't know. What matters is that you're now aware, and that you're taking necessary measures with the ministers and with the Rogue attacks."

My voice then filled the room. "We're slightly at fault with the ongoing Rogue attacks as well if you thought about it."

When everyone's attention was fixed on me, I continued, "We've eliminated countless Rogues but we've never thought of keeping even one alive to question. We just assumed that the Rogues ran among a few of their kind. What if this whole time, they weren't a few Rogue collectives but one mega Rogue corporation?"

After a moment of dead silence, Toby muttered, "That's void-scrap [shit] scary."

Juan then thought aloud, "But also hopeful." He locked eyes with me and said, "If we took down the corporation housing them,"

Commander Lovelace caught on, "We put an end to the strength of their attacks on our stations and our allies. Soon, we'd be able to eliminate them all."

Raden then huffed as he said, "I have always wondered where they were getting plasma blades from since three cycles ago."

Toby then exclaimed, "It makes sense! They have a supplier and maybe even a medical team. That's how some of them run away injured from one station only to come back strong again at another station a few weeks later."

Orion instinctively held me closer to his body at the mention of plasma weapons before he asked Raden, "Did most Rogues carry a plasma blade?"

"No, my Emperor. In an attack, maybe one or two. Because the Rogues themselves were Kaelari, and unlike Lyrokans, they wouldn't have been able to hold the plasma blade in their hands. Those who have the blades normally don't engage in close combat, and they come out last on the battlefield to surprise us. Essentially, to stab us while we're focusing on the other Rogues."

Orion stiffened again at the word 'stab'. I continued to stroke his shoulder from my side to calm him down. Orion pondered before he took a good look at the alliance and asked in concern, "How many of you here have been stabbed by the blade before, if I may ask?"

Toby answered for everyone. "Uh, none of us have, Your Eminence. Apart from Lyra, none of us would've survived a stab. The rogue in the next room wasn't exaggerating. The amount of plasma on those blades was lethal. The friends we lost were stabbed before Lyra could..."

Toby stopped when he noticed me shooting him a glare with a slight shake of my head. My thumb on Orion's shoulder had stopped moving. And Toby's hand reached for his mouth like he just said something he shouldn't have. Orion glanced at me before turning back to the guilty-looking Specialist and asked, "Before Lyra could what, Specialist Tobias?"

"Uh..." Toby looked nervously at me. Orion took a quick glance at the rest of the alliance who all seemed to know what he was going to say.