The two reacted differently to the news that Chris was bringing an elf onboard, Jania was ambivalent about the idea. She had no strong feeling one way or the other. If they betrayed the group or her she would have no qualms in killing them. If they behaved she would be happy to leave them alone.
Kikei on the other hand was excited by the news, she wanted to know the elves better. She always saw the best in people and believed that since it had ended well on Ollhelian she didn't need to hold a grudge against them. She even hoped to get some answers.
"Maybe they can help us find the other 4 Arkships and their survivors" Kikei had always found it odd that Chris didn't push harder for this information when he organised the non-aggression treaty. While she had no personal friends on the Arkships she considered them all her family. she noticed a strange spike in Null aura when she mention the Arkships.
"I wouldn't ask about those ships, I doubt the elf Chris is bringing knows anything about them anyway " replied Infy. Infy didn't want Null to answer as he wasn't always the best at hiding his emotion, especially from Kikei.
Jania had picked up on something. "They don't know, but you do. Don't you?"
"No, we said it before that we don't know anything" Infy had tried his best to hide his emotion. One of the benefits of being an energy life form was no body language to worry about.
"You liar, I can tell when you lie your aura flickers. You do know something" Kikei was now interested in what they knew.
"Just forget about those Arkships, no good will come from the truth. I have to go pick them up" Null and Infy disappeared and reappeared only a few seconds later with Chris and the new visitor in tow. Kikei made a mental note to get the boys' to tell her the truth.
Null and the elf stared at each other for a bit before Null just disappeared. Null and Infy auras spiked when they saw exactly who it was that Chris bought on board.
Chris sighed. "I think we can all skip the official introductions but this is Tanyth Envo and he will be joining us and helping us gather information". Everyone exchanged awkward greetings. Kikei excitement at meeting an elf had been doused by the odd interaction between Null and Tanyth, they both held more resentment towards each other than she expected. Something about this elf was not right.
While Tanyth was greeting the others the boys' were completing the final stages of their escape plan. They were in a small ship at the very edge of the solar system. The solar system and the rest of the universe had been separated by an extremely complex barrier. They knew if they could just make a small crack into the main universe they would be able to gate or teleport their ship and crew out.
They had tried many methods to defeat the barrier and all of them had failed. It wasn't until Infy had sent a clone to try to fly through the barrier that they noticed that the barrier nullified the clone but the clone also thinned the barrier. The problem with this method is that It drained energy from Infy, and it would take days to weeks for him to recover.
Over the last 18 months every few days, they had been targetting the same location and had significantly reduced the barrier. They had to keep this a secret as they assumed that who or what built the barrier could repair it faster than they could damage it. They also didn't think they would have much time once they breach the barrier before it would be detected.
They were now finally prepared to escape this prison. They were sad to be leaving Lisa behind. The two of them truly didn't know if they could come back once they had escaped. They had left Lisa with some gifts that should help her defend the colony if the elves don't abide by the treaty.
They planned to breach the barrier and gate the ship back to the golden chariot and then the rest was up to Chris. The timing behind this operation had to be nanosecond perfect. Null took a few breaths to calm himself and started the operation. They breached the barrier and gate the battleship successfully into Earths solar system. Null had tried to contact the Ollhelian system and noted the barrier had already been repaired.
There was no Chariot waiting for them at the location meaning it had been moved in the last 2 years. Instead of the Chariot, there was a Valtaui ship that had been trying to identify the new ship that had arrived, except their scanner couldn't get past the shields. Null and Infy didn't fully understand the barrier but had been able to mimic it. They had applied the new replicated barrier to their ship shield making it hard for even a tier 2 race to penetrate it.
Chris was standing on the observation deck with the rest of the group when they had abruptly changed location. He was annoyed that the boys' hadn't warned him but he knew they must have had their reasons. He looked out and saw a familiar set of stars. He had taken for granted how relaxing it was to see the stars. Over the last two years, they had seen nothing but an empty sky.
"Tanyth, I hope this is acceptable. Can we have coordinates now? I don't feel like fighting the Valtaui"
When Chris travelled to the elves asking for directions to Sinelux, they had only played along in the extremely off chance they succeeded. The elves didn't know the coordinates to any of the Angels worlds but they did offer the coordinates to one of the largest trading hubs. There they would be able to buy the information. All the elves had asked for was to allow Tanyth to travel with them.
Tanyth was in shock he hadn't expected them to succeed. His mission was simple he was to inform the Elven council what had transpired on Ollhelian over the last two years. He handed over the coordinates as the humans had met their end of the bargain.
Chris took the coordinates to Null, who then teleported the ship to a location nearby. Null and Infy didn't want anyone to track the gate back to Earth and they couldn't teleport too close as their battleship was large and in a busy location the chances of impacts were not insignificant.
Chris went over the plan with everyone including Null and Infy who had come back to the room.
"We are about to enter Agora, this is a hub for information gathering. Since humans don't have any standing in the galaxy we will be letting Tanyth handle the negotiations."
"Shouldn't I be handling the negotiations as I'm the highest rank here?" Infy asked using his communication drone. Infy hadn't fully recovered but he knew if they detected an angel on board then it would raise questions on why he wasn't in charge. He had let out a clone instead of a spirit projection.
"That isn't the plan, and you aren't a real angel so you wouldn't be able to answer the questions" rebutted Tanyth.
Infy had to agree he might have trouble answering the questions but he believed that Tanyth should be able to coach him.
Chris stepped in to try and put an end to the argument before it could evolve into something more. "Infy, we don't have enough knowledge to fake it, we will have to let Tanyth do it"
Infy was disappointed in Chris's response as there was another reason he didn't want Tanyth to do the talking, and it was more personal towards the crew. Infy could have chosen to talk over a mental network but he didn't.
"Kikei, you want to know what happen to the Arkships and their crew? You should ask Prince Tanyth here"
Chris growled at Infy. "That enough!". Chris had seriously underestimated the boys' information gathering abilities and he knew things were about to get dangerous.
"What? you don't think the others have the right to know that it was Tanyth the highest-ranking elf left on Ollhelian, that ordered the Arkship crews to be executed and their ships destroyed?"
Tanyth was terrified, He never expected that the devils of Ollhelian would know who he was. The elves had feared retaliation for the deaths of the humans. They had taken precautions to hide Tanyth appearance and rank to limit the chances of assassination.
Jania and Chris were worried, Infy and Null both emanating a large amount of bloodlust. The only thing keeping It in check was Kikei, both boys were looking at her as if asking for permission.
Kikei looked at the boys and spoke up "No, death doesn't undo death. Victims shouldn't choose the punishment."