AydarrGoogle

by Veronica Scott

  Sheyall brought two steaming mugs to the workstation and set one in front of Jill before taking her chair behind the desk. “Yes, I published several papers on the haruma studies before I graduated, which were well received and attracted Dr. Gahzhing’s attention. He offered me the position here, to do ‘similar animal studies’, he as he described the work.” She blew on the mug and took a sip.

  “A big jump from those little creatures to the Badari,” Jill said.

  “The reality here is…a nightmare.” Sheyall pushed her hair off her forehead, toyed with her cup, then drank a sip of the hot beverage as if to calm herself. “ But I signed a contract, and there’s no way off the planet until my time is done. You and I’ve both been lucky.” Sheyall closed her eyes and rubbed her temples as if to ease a headache. “We arrived during a relatively quiet time. After this next military training exercise the anim—the Badari are going on—is complete, there’ll be experiments on at least a few of them. This DNA testing cycle is nearly complete.”

  “What happens then?” Jill tried her drink, finding it mildly chocolate in taste, with odd spices.

  “According to what I’ve been told, all kinds of Chimmer-mandated tests on living subjects, things I cannot imagine myself doing, frankly. And then the subjects are put down. And focus shifts to the next iteration. I was told I could leave one or two of the most docile members of Generation Eight alive for now, to serve as mentors to the cadets for a year or two.”

  For a moment, Jill couldn’t speak. She could barely force the words out. “So Aydarr and the others will be tortured in the dubious name of science and killed? And then the cadets advance into becoming packs?”

  Sheyall refused to meet her gaze. “Normally, yes. But, apparently, this time the Chimmer are pushing for a decision as to which genetic line to continue, to ‘mass produce’, is how the customer expressed it. So your Aydarr might be fine, depending how the mission goes. The highest performers win, based on all the data and this final mission. Nothing’s finalized yet.”

  Battered by the information the scientist was sharing, Jill took a deep breath. “Why are you telling me all this?”

  Sheyall shook her head slowly and raised her eyebrows, as if she was confused herself. “Oddly enough, I find I have to confide in someone or go mad. Communications offworld are forbidden. I already tried to confer with my mentor at the university, once I reviewed the scope of the ‘experiments’, and not only was I unable to send a message, I received a reprimand. You’re much easier to talk to than my colleagues here.” Sheyall shivered. “Working in this place warps people.”

  “Or they were already warped. What about my fellow humans from the Sectors? Are they being experimented on yet?” She dreaded the answer, so Sheyall’s head shake was reassuring under the circumstances.

  “The Chimmer haven’t provided experiment parameters yet. I’m not involved in that side of the lab.” The scientist drained the contents of her mug, took a deep breath, and leaned forward. “Enough idle chat. Why aren’t you breeding yet? I’m being pushed by Dr. Gahzhing to achieve results. Are you and Aydarr having problems copulating? You are fertile, according to the bio readouts. He should understand the mechanics involved. I was told the Badari had received sexual training in the past, been supplied with females in highly regulated encounters.”

  Jill sat back with a thump. “Wow, doc, just dive right into the personal stuff.”

  “You do understand we could have done the procedure necessary to make you pregnant without ever allowing the two of you anywhere near each other? The technology isn’t complicated. The only reason we’re doing all this old fashioned physical-based contact and observation is because the Chimmer was intrigued with the two of you that day, gods know why, and wanted to see what would happen.”

  “You try making love to a man you met a few days ago, on a bed in the corner of a common room with ten other men and two boys in earshot,” Jill said, feeling nauseous.

  Eyes wide, Sheyall opened her mouth to ask a further question, but the com unit chimed. Holding up a finger, she answered and turned to check a database on her AI. With a murmured curse in Khagrish, the scientist had to activate the unit. Jill watched closely, committing to memory the symbols Sheyall clicked and seeing there was apparently no biodata involved in using the device. The Khagrish certainly had limited AI technology, no matter how advanced their race might be in DNA manipulation and gene splicing.

  And I’m not explaining all the biological details of human fertility. The less the Khagrish understood about humans the better.

  When Sheyall concluded her conversation with her colleague and directed her attention to Jill again, she said, “I understand what you’ve said about the privacy issues. My colleagues don’t want to deal with the fact the Badari aren’t a pack of animals or sub-sentients who’d rut anywhere, any time, and force you to submit. The pack members are clearly a higher order of sentient, just as you are. Not a popular view here at the labs. I’ll see what I can do. There’s nothing else we need to discuss today, but I do need to perform a physical examination. After we’re through, I’ve arranged for you to have a private shower, if you want one. Consider it a reward for not making a fuss over the exam.”

  “A shower and clean clothes would be stellar. Thank you.”

  “After we’re finished here, I’ll accompany you there and stand guard.” Sheyall smiled. “Guard you from the guard.”

  “There is one other thing. The guys in the pack got tablets with info on them the other day. Could I have one?”

  Sheyall frowned, and Jill feared she’d gone too far. “But you won’t be going on the combat mission. You have no need to see the details. You can’t read Khagrish in any event.”

  “True.” Jill wasn’t about to admit the cadets had been teaching her. “But there were pretty pictures. It’s mind numbingly boring in our cell when the others are gone.”

  Sheyall steepled her fingers. “I see. Yes, boredom would be a problem for a higher level sentient such as yourself. Let me consider the request.”

  “Great.” Jill injected enthusiasm into her tone and bounced to her feet as if the request didn’t matter one way or the other. “Let’s get the exam unpleasantness over so I can wash off the grime from today’s activity.”

  This time Jill had no desire to weep in the privacy of the shower. She was too focused on their eventual escape from this place, and her efforts to gather intelligence so plans could be made. As she soaped her hair and rinsed, she smiled. Right back into military mode all right.

  She dressed in her fresh overalls, resisting the urge to explain to the scientist how the garment was the opposite of appealing and therefore did nothing to further the Chimmer’s reproductive goals for her. After, she took her leave of Sheyall and went with the guard to the cell. She had a wave of déjà vu, as she saw the pack—her pack—waiting for her, while the food sat on the table untouched.

  “You were so long, I was worried.” Aydarr came to her, assessing her even as he gave her a hug.

  “I had a talk with Dr. Sheyall, a physical exam, then a shower.” Jill fluffed her drying hair. “Tell you about it later. Thanks for getting Jamokan off me earlier.” She moved toward the table.

  But when it was time for them to move to their private alcove, she found herself reluctant to broach the subject Dr. Sheyall had wanted to discuss. For the first time, shyness tangled her tongue.

  Brow furrowed, Aydarr studied her. “We don’t have to talk about it, if the conversation is going to make you so uncomfortable. Just promise me it had nothing to do with the lives of my men.”

  “I can make that promise, as far as what she had to say regarding me personally. It was kind of girl talk actually. I feel sorry for her.”

  “You feel sorry for her? I warned you—”

  “I know, she’s one of the people in charge of this terrible place, even if she doesn’t want to be. She seems kind of lost, out of her depth.”

  He stroked his hand down her arm, his
touch bringing a tingle to her skin and a stirring deeper inside. “Had I seen these bruises on you earlier today, Jamokan wouldn’t have escaped without a few of his own. Or blood drawn. The guards wouldn’t have been fast enough to prevent me from taking revenge.”

  She turned her arm left and right. “They don’t hurt.”

  He gathered her closer. “It doesn’t matter. He was out of line. I’ll make sure he understands the boundaries before the two of you ever meet again.”

  She decided to probe into an issue puzzling her. “When Timtur checked my foot today, he used healing energy on me, didn’t he? “

  “Do you want him to work on the bruises?” Aydarr scrutinized the blemishes more closely before studying her with narrowed eyes. “Are you lying to me about the pain?”

  “No, I really am fine. I’m trying to understand a few things about the Badari. Jamokan said you’d all been talking about me, but you haven’t spent any time with his pack since I arrived, have you?”

  His face set in a blank mask, he shook his head.

  She walked her fingers up his arm flirtatiously for the benefit of the vids watching the cell, nuzzled his neck and whispered in his ear. “Do the Badari have a form of telepathic communication? Mind to mind?”

  Aydarr went rigid, then blew out a breath and shook his head. “You’re far too smart. I’m glad the Khagrish are blind to what they’ve given us.”

  “Given you?”

  “This experiment has been running for a long time, and the bastards have spliced so many things into whatever we started out as, that we’ve developed abilities the Khagrish are aware of—” He allowed his talons to extend briefly before retracting them. “And other things we take great pains to hide. Like Timtur’s healing abilities. Some gifts we all have and others are specific to one individual. A genetic drift or mutation perhaps.”

  “I think the Khagrish do sloppy science,” she said. “Maybe the research started out differently but, from what I’ve seen so far, I did more exacting protocols when I was a kid in school doing projects for a grade.”

  “Unfortunately, their guards have efficient weapons. And then there are the cuffs.” He tapped one finger on the black band around his wrist.

  “Can you and I talk mind to mind?”

  He shook his head. “I wish. I’ve tried, but you didn’t appear to hear me.”

  “Nothing along those lines runs in my family. The ability sure would have been nice.”

  “We have two days of training left then the day after we leave for the combat zone,” he said.

  Dismayed, she could barely form the question. “So soon?” She leaned closer. “Sheyall did tell me the Chimmer are pushing to declare the next mission as the last for your generation. One DNA line will be declared the winner and the others are to be killed. She said nothing’s finalized yet but that’s the way the situation is trending. Did you know?”

  He linked his fingers with hers. “I knew we were getting to the upper age limit for a generation, yes. I gathered the trainers and Gahzhing were placing unusual emphasis on this next combat assignment. So I guessed some of what she told you for myself. Rebellions have been attempted here in the labs before but the power is all on the Khagrish side. You’ve seen the precautions they take when it comes to us.”

  “There have to be alternatives, ways to fight, to rebel.”

  “We won’t go meekly, this I promise you. But neither can I raise false hopes. My men and I are prepared but there are always the cubs and cadets to consider. The Khagrish hold them over our heads as bargaining chips. What man wants to buy his own life at the cost of a child’s?” Eyes sorrowful, he shook his head. “I need a solution that frees the entire Badari race, adult and children. And I confess I can see no such answer.”

  Jill pondered what he’d shared and wished she knew more about the Khagrish and the lab setup. She gazed out of the alcove to where the rest of the pack sat at the table, playing a card game or studying their handhelds or simply talking. The Badari were her people now too, as much as her own fellow colonists and her heart ached over the fate they were all facing. She prayed to the Lords of Space for help, any slightest break.

  “Hey, remember me?” Aydarr gently recaptured her attention. “We still have time to spend together. I’ve talked so much about my grim life here—tell me about your time as a child. Give me something happier to reflect on, to dream of, when we’ve been taken for our next mission.”

  “What do you want to know?”

  “Tell me of your sisters, of the games you played together as children, what it’s like to have parents.”

  She smiled, reflecting on her childhood. “The stories’ll be boring for you. I had a pretty normal family, except both my parents were in the military, so we were stationed at bases all over the Sectors. We didn’t stay in one place too long, as they’d get new assignments. My sisters and I formed a pretty tight unit of our own.”

  “Sounds interesting. What was your favorite planet?”

  “All worlds have unique aspects but there was one planet where we spent a lot of time at the beach and another where we got to go skiing in the mountains—”

  “You like to be active?”

  Jill considered. “Yeah, I guess you could say that but I also enjoy puzzles and mental challenges. Taking things apart and reassembling them again, or making them better if I can.”

  Aydarr looked around the cell. “Not many possibilities for such pursuits here, I’m afraid.”

  She remembered her observation of Sheyall’s computer and how easy it might be to hack. “You could be surprised.”

  The lights flickered, signaling time for the prisoners to retire.

  Aydarr yawned and stretched. “I’d be delighted if you surprised me in that regard. Do your worst.”

  “I think you mean my best,” she said, sliding under the meager covers and making room for him to lie beside her. “Don’t the Badari deserve my most elevated efforts?”

  He nuzzled her ear playfully. “Ah, but the Khagrish definitely deserve the worst you can do to them. I’ll dream of happy outcomes tonight.”

  “You enjoy those dreams,” she said, punching her thin pillow as she did every night here, in a vain attempt to make it fluffier. I’ll probably be dreaming of you. But he didn’t need to know that secret.

  CHAPTER FIVE

  “I’d like you to come with me today,” Aydarr said at breakfast the next morning.

  Surprised, Jill blinked. “Of course, if the Khagrish will let me.”

  “I’m going to insist. They don’t want to upset me this close to a combat deployment, which gives me a bit of leverage.”

  “Navigating life here seems to be a constant negotiation,” she said.

  “Until the point where the Khagrish have made a final decision, then there’s no more room to maneuver.” Aydarr straightened. “But that time is not yet.”

  Sure enough, when the guards showed up to take Aydarr from the cell, their squad leader yielded fairly easily to the Alpha’s demand for his mate to accompany him.

  “Where are we going?” Jill whispered as they walked through a part of the complex new to her, surrounded by the guards.

  “You’ll see.” He squeezed her hand.

  A few minutes later, Jill stepped through an open portal into a room filled with Badari boys, of both the feline and the canine influenced DNA lines, as well as some that must represent the reptilian-influenced Tzibir. She had yet to meet a Tzibir adult, but the boys had oddly shaped heads, no visible body hair and a hint of scales. At first she couldn’t sort out what she was facing, but as she stood next to Aydarr, watching the boys, she realized the teenagers must be ready to move into a pack soon. There were also about ten each who were probably five years younger, then a set who seemed to be about five years old. As with the adults, there was less resemblance between the cubs than she’d expected. Another topic to ask Aydarr about later, adding to her mountainous list of questions about the Khagrish experiments and how the Badari ca
me to be. The boys stared at her with amazement, eyeing the way she stood close to Aydarr and held his hand.

  “Generations nine, ten and eleven,” Aydarr murmured. “There is, as yet, no twelve.”

  It broke her heart to think of the future awaiting these boys under the Khagrish.

  The door opened and Aydarr moved aside to allow Jamokan and his guards to enter, followed closely by a male who had to be the Tzibir alpha, also ringed by watchful warders.

  A Khagrish male emerged from an office across the room and strode purposefully to where the alphas and Jill stood. “I wasn’t expecting the human female.” He glared at her. “For what purpose has she been introduced into the leave-taking protocol?”

  “She’s my mate and, as such, a key member of my pack.” Aydarr’s voice was harsh. “The cubs and cadets need to swear their loyalty to her as they have to me.”

  “Your line only,” the Tzibir said. “Mine have nothing to do with her.”

  “What harm can it do if the kids all meet me?” Jill asked, thinking it might be useful in the future to have a connection with this collection of prisoners as well. “They’ve obviously already seen me standing here.”

  The Khagrish rubbed his chin. “An interesting variable. All right, 801, you may present your mate to the assembled young, then you and the woman will meet separately as usual with those of your own DNA line.”

  “Agreed.” Before anyone could change their minds, Aydarr stepped forward, closer to the young, Jill matching him step for step. “This is my mate, Jill Garrison, a human of the Sectors.”

  “I’m pleased to meet all of you,” she said, looking from face to face. “Although regretful at the circumstances, all of us being prisoners of the Khagrish. I’d be happy to answer any questions I can without jeopardizing the safety of my people.”

  There was silence. A husky male with the unmistakable air of an alpha raised one hand and, without waiting for permission, said, “Will there be other mates provided? How does one qualify for a mate?”