“Wait, should I call Cory?” I asked as Peggy sat opposite Cas and me.

Orion dropped into the chair next to her, pulling screens towards him and booting up the holodisplay.

It felt weird being in the inner war room without Andy, Elliot and Aquila. It made the room feel too big. Too intimidating.

“I’m not sure, actually,” Peggy said.

Cory, do you want to come and listen to this briefing? I asked quickly.

There was a pause as I waited for him to reply.

I’m actually in the middle of something. It’s… I’m prepping our escape plan. Loading up a medKit and some other stuff. Chal has so much stashed away here. I can come if you want though? he thought.

I hesitated.

Do you have anything new to share, Peg? Or is it mostly just what Chal told us?

Peggy’s eyebrows drew together as she glanced down at the screen in front of her.

I have a few new things but I can always explain them later if you want? I think what you’re doing is more important, she thought. We might need to act quickly.

Concern washed through me.

How quickly? I asked.

She glanced up at me and shook her head slightly.

As soon as possible.

“Okay, so what’s going on?” I asked, unable to wait any longer. “You said that you found something weird?”

Peggy nodded, looking down at the screen again.

“I did…” she said before hesitating. “I mean… I shouldn’t really have been snooping but the information was all there and it wasn’t even password-protected so I feel like I didn’t do anything wrong. I mean, I barely had to hack anything, you know?”

I watched her ramble, knowing that she was trying to give me all the information I would need when we had to speak to Andy about it. I’d need to tell him how she found the information and make it look like she wasn’t snooping, she just happened to stumble across the first bit of information and spiralled from there.

That made sense, he’d understand that. I could do that.

“How did you find it?” I asked, trying to mentally prepare what I would say to Andy.

“I mistyped something. I was searching for information on the Council ship, obviously, and I don’t even know how I managed to type something so badly wrong or what I was trying to write but I found an interview from one of the Guardians who had been on there but escaped. It wasn’t very old, I think she’s only been out for a few days. I mean, maybe I shouldn’t have watched it,” Peggy said, hesitating and pretending to look contrite.

“It’s okay, you were curious. Plus, you’re meant to be keeping an eye on what’s going on there, right?” I asked.

“Yeah!” Peggy said enthusiastically, seeming to grab that excuse. “And I haven’t seen an update in a couple of days so I basically just wanted to see what was going on, you know? See if I could fact-check it.”

“Okay… and what did they say in the interview?” I asked.

I knew. Chal had told us but I didn’t want Orion to know that.

“It was pretty bad. I mean… a lot of them were using screens to talk because I think they’d had their tongues cut out or something but… They think Harvey’s killed off all of the other Councillors and that he’s going to kill the Guardians next. He’s been drugging people,” she said.

We already knew that but the disgust on her face was too much. There was something new that she found and I almost didn’t want to know what it was.

“Who’s he been drugging?” I asked reluctantly.

She looked nauseous.

“Everyone. That’s why I spiralled so hard. It wasn’t in the interview but in some of the other information that I found. He’s been sending drugs down to planets, not just red mist but pills and other stuff too. He’s been drugging water and food and having people injected. There are so many planets that are basically just full of zombies now because of him. It’s too late, I don’t know how he’s been getting away with this for so long or even how long it’s been happening but they’re already addicted. People are dying,” Peggy said passionately.

I swallowed.

“Oh,” was all I could say.

We knew he was drugging people but I didn’t know how bad it was.

“That’s not it. He’s got scientists onboard the ship too. They’ve been making the drugs but apparently, they’re making worse ones too and testing them on the Guardians. So many are dying. We need to do something.”

Orion nodded.

“We don’t know how many they’ve killed though. Apparently, he’s just releasing the corpses into space when they die so we’ll never know but the number of Guardians on board the ship is dwindling,” he added.

“Why?” I asked. “Why is he doing this? Is it just to punish people or to make them easier to control?”

I really didn’t know.

Peggy shook her head.

“I think we’ve worked it out,” she said, glancing at Orion.

He nodded at her.

“Tell them,” he urged.

“He’s trying to make a drug that’s… mind controlling. He thinks that’s the only way he will be able to get back in power. He wants to perfect the drug and use it on everyone.”

At first, I couldn’t respond. It made sense. It made almost too much sense. There was no other way he’d be in control again. We knew too much, everyone knew too much. He’d need to find a way to drug every single person in the galaxy so that people didn’t ask questions and he could continue to do what he wanted.

It was a ridiculous plan, a terrifying one.

“Wait. You said he wants to perfect it, how’s that going?” I asked.

Peggy glanced up at me over the tablet.

“That’s why I called you. I was just going to talk to Andy about it but then I found something that one of his scientists posted stuff online before he was killed. I only just found it and I don’t think anyone else did. I think it’s true but obviously, there’s no way to confirm it or even that it was him but… he was trying to stall them, doing his best to prevent them from perfecting it but… they were almost there.”

I took a slow, deep breath, trying to steady myself.

“How effective is it? The drug they’re making?” I asked.

Both Peggy and Orion were staring at me with grim expressions.

“Very. The last the scientist wrote about it was that it had horrible side effects but that the Guardians they were experimenting on did everything they asked. No matter how horrible,” Peggy said darkly.

I shouldn’t have asked, I know that. It was stupid and nothing good would come of it but the words were out of my mouth before I could stop them.

“What did they make them do?”

Peggy’s expression was reluctant but Orion answered for her.

“Torture each other. One was made to kill her husband. Slowly. The scientists were… they wrote about it in great detail. She cried the whole time but still followed their commands. She couldn’t stop herself. She didn’t even try.”

I shuddered, my eyes darting to Cas who looked equally horrified.

“We can’t let him do anything with that. If he starts using it on people…” I trailed off.

“They’d fight against us,” Orion said quietly. “He’d control everyone, kill whoever he wanted and then send them after us.”

I nodded.

I could see him doing that but I didn’t want to let him.

“There’s more,” Peggy said. “In the last post, I assume just before he died, the scientist said he was going to try and destroy everything. All of the drugs and stuff. If he was successful…”

“Even if he wasn’t,” Cas said, “we can’t let anyone get ahold of that. If anyone has that power, it’ll be abused. We need to destroy it before anyone else can.”

He glanced at me and I felt everyone else do the same.

“I agree,” I said. “We need to get there before anyone else can and destroy it.”

“Umm…” Orion said quietly. “Is… Do you think it would be safe if Aquila had it? Like if the fighters did attack the ship, do you think she’d destroy the drug or…”

I didn’t know what to say. I wanted to believe that she’d destroy it but part of me worried that she wouldn’t. That she’d see how much potential the drug had and use that.

I didn’t want to find out.

“I don’t know,” I said slowly, worried about how Orion would react.

He’d been on Freo a long time. He could support Aquila and insist that we immediately tell her everything.

I could tell he wasn’t happy with my answer.

“Would you trust her with it?” he asked, more insistently this time.

I wasn’t sure what to do or what he wanted to hear but I didn’t want to lie. I wanted to be able to trust him and I did.

“No.”