by Stone, Layla
“Five minutes. That’s all.”
Rannn hesitated. “Five minutes. And I’ll be watching.” Yon didn’t wait for another word. He was out the door and in the interrogation room as fast as he could get there. He didn’t sit down or get comfortable. He walked up to Veeda, got level with her face, and said, “It must be difficult knowing that you were captured by a team of insignificant intelligences.”
“You have no idea,” Veeda said scathingly.
Yon sat down slowly and told her, “Except, it wasn’t us who found you. It was a fellow Numan.”
Her dull eyes snapped to his. “And who would that be?”
Yon had to wonder how close the Numans were. Did they know each other by name? From the Federation records, only a few hundred had survived. “I doubt you’d know him. He’s a Federation doctor.”
Veeda looked confused. “Are you saying there’s a Numan in the Federation? Impossible.”
Yon felt a very Demon idea come to mind. Time to offer a deal. “I’ll make you a deal. You tell me what planet Calum is on, and I’ll let you talk to the one who found your lab.”
Her nose scrunched. “If you go after Calum, you’ll die before you set foot on the planet.”
“Deal or no deal?”
“Depends. What’s the Numan’s name?”
Yon’s body told him to change the deal, so he did. “If I tell you his name, I need a name, too. The name of the planet where I can find Calum.”
“Yunkins don’t lie, but they also don’t make deals. You’re not an honorable Yunkin, so you could be lying to me. So, no, I’m not falling for your lies.”
Yon stood up and made to leave but then pressed a single finger on the table. “The same Numan who found you, knew that you always implanted bombs on your experiments. Saved thousands of Flourgs from dying when we saved them from Brica.”
“What?” she hissed.
Yon moved to the door. He was gambling and didn’t know if it would pay off, but when he stepped out, he heard her call out, “What’s his name?”
Stopping in the doorway, he said, “A name for a name.”
“Cherring. But you’ll never find it.” The old woman grabbed the chair and faced him. “Now, tell me the Numan’s name.”
Inside, Yon was smirking. “We call him Doc.” Then he stepped out and let the door shut.
Walking into the viewing room, he saw Rannn standing there with his arms crossed. “I’m damn impressed.”
Pax was clapping. “There’s that Demon I knew was in there.”
Yon ignored Pax because his cybernetic filters had adjusted to treating Pax a certain way. Speaking to Rannn, he said, “Do you think she was telling the truth? And if so, how do we find a planet in the billions upon billions out there?”
Ansel walked in just then. “Sci told me that someone promised that Veeda could talk to me if she told you where Calum is.”
Yon should have thought about Sci before. “Do you know if Sci can verify that Calum is on Cherring? Or find out where it is?”
Ansel held up a finger and said, “Yes, she was telling the truth. He’s on Cherring. But, before I go in, I want you to know that you’re going to hear things you won’t like.”
Rannn dropped his arms. “I doubt it will be that bad.”
“Sci suggested that you have a few glasses of your Demon alcohol.”
Rannn frowned. “That bad, huh? Well, I’m not going to argue with a Cerebral.”
Pax held up his hand as he walked to the door. “I’m on it. I’ve been itching for a drink since I left on the scouting mission.”
Ansel let him pass. When he was gone, the Numan walked into the interrogation room. Yon stood next to Rannn. Neither spoke as they watched Veeda turned in her chair and call out, “Brother. You’re the one who found me? I should have known.”
29
A Messed-Up Numan Family
“What did she just say?” Rannn asked.
Yon didn’t repeat it. He was astonished, too.
Ansel glanced at the screen as if he could see him through it. The Numan he had known for years took a seat and dragged it forward. Once he sat down, he said, “We’re not related, and you know that.”
“We share the same blood.”
“No, you’re my mother’s experiment. She designed you.”
Veeda’s lips curled. “I am her perfect child. You’re just a biological occurrence.”
“It’s called being born. And you’re not perfect. You’re soulless,” Ansel said.
Veeda shook her head, her voice getting hard. “Do you remember teaching me how to replace an experiment’s eyes with the ones our mother designed?”
“I remember.”
“Remember when I almost turned your sister’s skin into tree bark?”
“I’ve never forgotten what you did to Alieena. Or me.”
Veeda smiled. “Alieena was never the same after you had to flay off her skin because I made it petrify. Even after you grew her skin back, she was never the same. Always hiding in the storage rooms or the vents.”
“I don’t think you could have proven my point any better. You’re soulless, Veeda. You will never understand how off the mark you are.”
Her eyes narrowed. “Am I really off the mark? Because, last time I checked, I wasn’t the one who killed our mother.”
Ansel stood. “I didn’t kill her.”
“You let her die! I watched you. You locked her in a room and let her die. Even Calum wouldn’t have poisoned her the way you did.”
“She killed herself. She designed that chemical, and she tipped it over. Had I let her out, everyone would have died.”
Veeda’s voice cracked as she yelled, “You killed my MOTHER! You’re the soulless monster. You’re the mistake she tried to fix, and yet you never got better. How many times, Ansel? How many times did she try with you?”
Yon could see Ansel’s chest inflate more and more. Veeda was probably telling the truth, and he wondered if that was why Ansel was so focused on healing. To make up for not helping his mother.
“She killed herself. Her actions caused her demise.”
Veeda’s hand rocked back and forth. “You had to set it up. She was meticulous, and you know that.”
“Accidents happen.”
Veeda inhaled through her nose. “Not for Numans.”
“I’m giving you two more seconds to say what you want to say to me, and then this conversation is over.”
Veeda sneered. “I know what I want to say to you. I hope you go looking for my Calum, so all your friends die painful deaths. But I know that Fynbar will notice that something happened to me because my last contract was with him. And when he finds out that you were behind this, he will come for you. He’ll send his cyborgs, and they will rip you apart.”
“I’m not afraid of Fynbar’s little sex bots that he contracts to make.”
“His cyborgs bring in the highest-paying contracts because he knows how to take a being and turn him into a cybernetic slave. His assassins will find you, and I hope that they let you live so Fynbar can torture you for years as one of his little projects.”
“Two seconds are up. I’m gone.” Ansel walked to the door, and Veeda yelled, “Fynbar will remove the last shred of humanity you have and force you to do what you fear most.”
Ansel chuckled darkly as he opened the door. “I’ve already lived through my greatest fear.”
The door opened to the viewing room, and Ansel peeked in. “Sci says you might have questions, but he’s not sure. You are both still processing what you heard. So, if you want, I can come back.”
Pax shoved Ansel to the side as he walked in with three bottles and four cups. He set them down on the table, pointed at Ansel, and said, “They might not have questions, but I was listening with a wireless trans-ear-speaker. And I have questions. However, I need a drink first.”
“Fine.” Ansel moved to the table and took a seat. Yon poured a glass of whiskey before sitting. Pax and Rannn sat also.
Pax picked up his glass and took a sip of his whiskey. “I liked you the first time I saw you, and every day you keep things interesting.”
Pax looked at him, and Yon knew what he wanted. Holding up his glass, he told Ansel, “Say the word, and I’ll make her death look like an accident.”
Ansel cleared his throat. “I think I need to add that Sci has been listening to Veeda’s thoughts all week and says he knows where to find her brothers. He’s begun to update the Federation archives with things Veeda knows that her brothers have done. According to her memories, Calum has killed off whole planets before. But they were non-Federation ones. There’s more, but you can read it in the archives. Another thing I should tell you is that Sci will not give you the location of Cherring until we find and capture Fynbar.”
“Why is that?” Rannn asked.
“Because Sci believes Fynbar has his brother Chollar. And he needs to save him.” Ansel took the glass, picked it up, and took a quick sip. His face pinched, and he visibly shook before setting it down. “That’s horrible.”
“It’s an acquired taste,” Rannn said jokingly.
Ansel half-smiled but it looked forced. “Where is Fynbar at?”
“On a planet called Keagon in the Outworlds,” Ansel answered.
“Does he know where in the Outworlds? It’s a big place, and our navigation is slowly mapping a path to Boore as we speak. If we are going to take a detour, we need him to give us more information,” Rannn said.
“Why does he think Fynbar has his brother?” Pax asked.
Ansel answered, “Because Sands told him so.”
“Why would Sands know that?” This from Rannn.
“Because Sands is one of Fynbar’s cyborgs,” Ansel said, making Yon spit out the whiskey he’d just drunk.
30
Promises Worth Keeping
Yon was back at his desk. According to his Minky, he had fourteen hundred messages, and none of them mattered until he reviewed the call between Yelena and Decoud. Using his cybernetics, he tapped into her files and pulled up the record of the quantum video call then tacked the temporary file, opened it, and watched Yelena take a deep breath as she initiated the transmission.
The call was accepted by an older Terran with a thin layer of white hair on his head. “Hello?”
“Are you Decoud?”
“Yeah, that’s me.”
“My name is Yelena, and I was a mining slave with your sister, Cami.”
Decoud leaned into the video. “What did you say?”
Yelena’s lips pulled down at the sides. “I knew your sister. She talked about you all the time.”
Shaking his head, he said, “Cami…? I mean, how did you know her?”
Yelena told Decoud about being kidnapped and experimented on. Told him about the mine she’d worked in and why it was so dangerous. Then she told him about Cami and how she constantly worried about him.
In the video, Yon could see the male’s eyes tearing up right before he started to cry. Yelena’s illumia rushed out of her neck and filled the room as she told Decoud about an animal named Gunner.
“She loved that damn dog,” Decoud said. “Never saw a more spoiled thing in my life.”
Yelena laughed. “I come from a planet where we eat animals, we don’t dress them in clothes and feed them. It took a while to understand why she would cry about him.”
Decoud asked, “What planet are you from?”
“Allus.”
“I’ve never heard of it.”
Yelena shrugged and then looked down. “One of the things I regret is that Cami never lived to see us all freed.”
Decoud ran a hand over his hair. “How did you escape?”
“A warrior from the Federation freed us from our cages while we were being transported to another mine.”
“I didn’t know the Federation had warriors.”
Yelena smiled. “On my planet, we use the term warriors for strong males.”
“Did Cami die in the escape?”
Yelena shook her head, and more illumia filled the room. Her voice was heavy as she told him what had happened during the routine compressor swap. She explained the proximity rules and Ruegg’s punishment.
When she finished, Decoud faced away from the screen as he said, “She never had a chance. She didn’t deserve that.”
Yon agreed, but Yelena didn’t deserve to live with the guilt either.
The call ended shortly after that, and Yon deleted the temporary file. There was a part of him that wanted to find Yelena and make sure she was okay, but he also knew that she was tougher than he gave her credit for. A better idea would be to treat her to something special after work. Thinking of something risky, he knew it would get her mind off her call from the morning. Pleased with that thought, he decided to open his messages and take care of the high priorities first.
Forty-five minutes later, in the middle of writing a letter, his door opened, and Shady walked in. “I’m here for your training.”
A part of him wanted to turn her away. But getting the training done now would clear his schedule for later. Waving his hand towards the chair on the other side of his desk, he said, “Proceed.”
Shady moved the seat, grabbed his Minky screen, and turned it off. “Okay, let’s start.” Yon quickly reassessed the situation and decided it wasn’t worth giving her his compliance. Grabbing his screen, he turned it back on.
“Commander? What are you doing?”
“I’m sure you’ve been alerted to my upgrades. I can listen and do my work at the same time. So, say whatever you need to say.”
“That’s not how this works.”
Yon cut his eyes to her. “Petty officer, that’s exactly how this is going to work.”
She sat back and folded her cybernetic arms over her chest. “I guess the cybernetics didn’t fix your personality flaws.”
“They didn’t fix yours. What made you think they would fix mine?”
She grabbed his Minky screen and turned it back to face her. Pulling up a training video, she said, “The captain told me I had to create a video so the training could be taken at your convenience.”
Turning the screen back to face him, he mentally found the training and ran it through on four speed. Three minutes later, he said, “Done.” Then he flicked his finger to the door. “Now, get out.”
* * *
Yon walked into ecosystems at the end of Yelena’s shift. When she saw him, her eyes lit up.
He liked that. Mating with her was better than he’d ever imagined, and he was already hungry for her again. His body yearned for her like an addict. His cybernetics deduced that it was the Demon phenomenon called bahity. It was a deep and bonding craving for a life mate. His cybernetics kept his cravings in check, and Yon was both irritated and thankful for that. One reason he was thankful was that he could focus on work with clarity. He could respond to people who irritated him with Yunkin diplomacy instead of being cruel like he wanted to.
Another great effect the cybernetics had on him was that he could hold his erection all night. He never would have been able to do that before.
Yelena walked up to him, placed her hands on his chest, and lifted up on her tippy toes waiting for his kiss. Leaning down, he pressed his lips to hers but cut off the kiss before she got too far into it. He had plans for her.
“You done?”
“Yes.”
“Good.” Interlacing his fingers with hers, he tugged her into the hallway and down into the elevator. In the cab, he pulled her back to his chest, reached under her shirt, and rubbed his thumb along the top of her bra.
Yelena tilted her head against him and pushed her chest into his hand. “How fast are we going to do this?” she asked.
“Not fast enough for right now,
but fast enough to get you ready.” Yon slipped his fingers under her bra and pinched her nipple.
She sucked in a breath and asked, “Ready for what?”
The elevator door opened onto the bridge. Yon removed his hand and directed her forward. Yelena took small steps. “I’m not allowed in here.”
Yon guided her to the helm, then took her hands and pressed them against the controls. “Keep your hands here.” He stayed behind her as he unfastened her belt and slipped his hand under her panties. Yelena widened her legs for him, and he inwardly smiled at how much she wanted him.
His pants were already tight and getting tighter by the minute. He could have turned off sensation to his cock until it was time for him to be inside her, but he liked the feeling.
Slipping his finger between her folds, he rubbed gently. Lowering his head, he covered her neck with kisses. As Yelena’s breathing increased, so did the pressure in her sex. It didn’t take long before she was panting and giving him orders to keep going.
He covered her mouth right before she moaned because she didn’t do anything quietly. When she finished, he pushed down her pants and tipped up her ass. Opening his fasteners, he released himself and stroked his cock once and then guided it inside her. Feeling her slickness, he gave in to his desire and grabbed her hips, lifting her higher as he rocked hard. He was unrelenting as he pummeled her over and over, needing to take her roughly because he had been waiting all day. His cock was filling up, and he was about to come, but he didn’t want to stop. Since she hadn’t climaxed yet, he used his cybernetics to apply enough pressure to keep himself from coming.
Adjusting his position, he continued digging deep inside of her, hitting the back of her womb. She dropped her head against the controls, her breathing shallow. “Yes. You feel so good.”
Yon told her, “Come for me, babe.”
“Almost. Don’t stop.” She was breathless.
He felt like there was a tight cock-band around him, and it was digging in to keep him from coming. It was painful, and yet it felt so good he was ready to explode all his seed inside her.