by V. K. Ludwig
“Where is she?” Kael asked.
I turned my head toward the last door.
He immediately set into motion and opened the many locks, finding K’nema tied to her bed in much the same way I had left her behind.
“You should probably wait outside,” he said. “There’s a reason this method of torture was abolished.”
With my body in trembles, shaking my head came easy. “No, I want to stay.”
Kael let out a huff, and streams of light beamed from his com. They connected into a holographic control panel above his wrist, where he swiped and twirled his finger. He tapped onto a sign and pulled it from the projection, then placed it onto K’nema’s forehead.
The Jal’zar shrunk into a smaller version of herself, her eyes wide. “Don’t do this, Vetusian. No. Please don’t.”
He took her hand into his and squeezed it hard. “The hacker. And while you’re at it… Zavis da taigh Broknar.”
“I can’t,” she said, her head shaking frantically. “Nobody should disturb the dead. Don’t do this… pleeease!”
But Kael didn’t listen.
He fumbled his com off his wrist and placed it onto K’nema’s stomach, then stepped back and leaned against the wall.
“What’s happening?” I asked.
He folded his arms in front of his chest and tapped a finger against his lips. Right above the Jal’zar, streams of light combined into a hut, with strung-up bones hanging from the rafters. In front of it, a Jal’zar shoved soil to the side and revealed a green leaf, a girl, barely older than a toddler.
“Ami,” the girl’s distorted voice resonated the room, the words which followed interrupted by static. “I f-f-found a crinkletooth.”
“Ah,” another voice breathed. “Mekara revealed that this is where we shall settle down for the life of the star.”
Although K’nema squeezed her eyes shut until her lashes trembled, tears found their way down her sunken cheeks anyway. She shook her head, tugging on those ropes around her wrist. When those wouldn’t budge, she bunched up her shoulders and cocked her head, trying to cover her ears.
“What is this?” I asked.
Before Kael managed to answer, the projection dissolved into particles seemingly floating the room, only to pull back together. This time, there was nothing but all-surrounding soil, woven with cracks that spread toward the horizon. Deep grunts resonated the room, each one sending a vibration through the hologram. It simply dipped down in a rough rhythm, sending particles of dust up in front of me.
Grunt. Bounce.
Grunt. Bounce.
A deep voice followed. “Such a nice tight mating cleft sucking the seed right out of me. Even warmer than a droid.”
It wasn’t until gray arms reached toward the horizon that the blood froze in my veins. I reached my own arms out. Lined them up with the hologram, the grunts so clearly behind me now. Particles of ash caked my nostrils, turned my skin dry. It clogged my throat and stuck to my tongue, the scent of burnt paper mixing with sweat.
“They are her memories,” I said, my voice so faint I worried I might have turned into a hologram myself.
Vomit pushed from my stomach into my throat, clumping there in bits and pieces right below my esophagus. “Turn this off. Please.”
“Zavis the chainsmith,” Kael shouted into the room, then leaned into me. “Turn around if you can’t take it. Melek’s trial is supposed to start soon, so we have neither time nor moralities to spare.”
K’nema let out a wail that shattered the pith of my bones. “No more. Please. No more.”
“Zavis the chainsmith!”
Kael’s voice shattered from the room with such force, it put a ringing in my ear. The hologram dissolved and turned into a dark alley. A Vetusian in black uniform grabbed the neck of a healer, lifted him up, and held him there. White legs kicked and jerked. The hologram flickered, and the healer fell to the ground. The warrior leaned down to him. Whispered something. Then turned and walked away.
In her memory, K’nema hurried quickly over to the healer, her feet popping into view at each step. Her gray arm stretched out. Weapon in hand. Finger on the trigger. The barrel lined up with the head, hesitated, then shook.
“You shot him,” Kael said. “Who helped you set Zavis up? Tell me!”
“I won’t tell you shit, Vetusian.”
“Very well. Show me your daughter. Did you have a son as well? What happened to them? Did they rape your daughter? Slaughter her?”
“No!” K’nema shouted and writhed on the bed, all limbs tugging on the ropes until the skin around wrists and ankles turned from gray to white. “Let them rest. Let them rest!”
But the hologram formed into the shape of a tree, the canopy nothing but brittle twigs hanging dry from dying limbs. A male Jal’zar hung tied a few feet above the ground, wrists bound behind him.
“Ami! Run!” he shouted as he wiggled, the harsh bark scratching over his skin, cutting him until blood ran down the trunk.
In front of him, a sun rose so brightly I held up my arm in front of me. The rays crept over the ground as K’nema stumbled backward in her memory. Once the bright light reached the Jal’zar male, he screamed until the screech collapsed inside his lungs.
But K’nema’s cry picked up where her memory left off. “Fehan! The hacker. His name is Fehan! No more. Please, no more. Let my children sleep. They are with Mekara now. Let them rest in peace. I’m begging you.”
Kael hurried over and grabbed his com, the lights disappearing back into the gadget. “Fehan? What stratum? What crop?”
“Fehan the scholar,” she cried.
“Where is he?”
“Back on Cultum.”
He grabbed a small piece of metal and sat down beside her. “And you will give me a DNA-coded statement about the sold Gaia links?”
She rolled her head to the side, her purple gaze pinning me against the wall, making me become one with the stone behind embroidered wallpaper. “If only you let my children rest.”
“Tell me something, Jal’zar.” Kael sat down beside her, cutting a rope from her wrist with that tool of his. “What does the hacker have to do with Zavis?”
“Because he knows of the child.”
“Huh? What child?” Kael smacked her cheek, making her startle back into full consciousness her flickering eyelids tried to escape. “You’re lucky I’m in such a rush.”
He stared straight at me. “I can’t send her statement through the cosmikin, or we risk that it will get deleted. We have to rush back to Earth, and hope Commander Torin will be able to drag out that trial.”
K’nema reached for his hand.
Her statement came with a desolate tone, her eyes empty. Like two translucent purple orbs, the soul behind it abandoned, disintegrating right in front of me.
It was as if she died right there so Melek could live.
Twenty-Seven
Melek
* * *
I let my eyes trail over the white wall, and up to the even whiter ceiling, the cell so brightly lit it left no shadows to hide from my heartache. Desperate, I wiped my fingers over my face, snorting over the tips, not hoping for traces of souldust underneath my fingernails, but remnants of Katie’s scent.
They always returned greasy and trembling. Shook like they did seven sun cycles ago during a bottomless comedown, my hands itching for the closeness of my mate, my skin crawling with grief. Just once more, did I want to hold her. Have her stare into my eyes and tell me that they were beautiful.
I didn’t move at the creak of the door hinges but jolted at the sound of Eden’s voice. “I have news.”
She hurried over and squatted down before me her knees spread wide to accommodate the hybrid growing in her belly. A glint came over her eyes, but not bright enough to distract from the way her brow furrowed.
“Katie and Grace are on their way to Earth.”
I performed a gesture of gratitude to the Three Suns, and warmth spread through my core. My fated one
and her daughter were safe. All that was left for me was to die, satisfy the law, in order to keep it that way.
“There’s more,” Eden said, her eyes growing a bit wider, warmer. “Kael managed to get the DNA-coded statement from the Jal’zar.”
The cell finally dimmed around me, shadows growing in the corners where wall met ceiling. They loomed there, grinned down at me, my mind unable to catch up with Eden’s words. It couldn’t be possible.
“What?”
She grabbed my wrists and wiggled them around as if to kickstart my pulse, supplying that foggy brain with more oxygen. “They’re still quite far out, but Torin and I came up with an idea. You only need to do two things, okay?” Her eyes came searching for mine before she continued with slow and concise words. “Don’t let them think she might have done it. And drag out the trial.”
Everything around me spun.
My anam ghail was coming for me.
With proof of our innocence.
The news formed a cleft in my chest, vulnerable and sensitive as if I didn’t dare trust it. It expanded there, spreading all over my body and devouring me whole. For a moment, I wasn’t even sure if I still existed inside this room, until a deep voice rattled me back.
“Healer Melek,” the guard’s voice came through the door. “Please step all the way to the end of the cell, back toward the door, wrists ready to be cuffed.”
After Eden’s nod of encouragement, I did as told, and waited for the draft of the door gap, followed by two sets of footsteps. Eden gave a dip of her head and disappeared, the guards bowing as she squeezed herself out of my cell.
Warm against my skin, the laser cuffs powered up around my wrists. A harsh shove against my shoulder later, and I left my cell with a guard on each side.
They accompanied me along hallways and through an exterior door with no sight of Eden. Had she just been in my cell, or had I imagined that?
When we stepped outside, a breeze of something humans called spring tickled around my nose, like tender flowers in bloom and young vegetation. As hard as I tried, I couldn’t avoid thinking of all the things I had wanted to learn about this planet. Have Katie teach me the names of her trees and the customs of her species. Would we now get the chance?
I took a deep breath as we followed the overpass, which connected the holding facility to the Imperial Assembly. The air hung moist around us. Since it had nothing to settle on up here, it settled cold against my body. Inside, the scents vanished, soon replaced by dry air and traces of my cold sweat.
Mumbles grew louder at each step, grave and earnest. The faces they belonged to appeared when the guards led me inside an auditorium, where Vetusians sat in neat rows separated by wooden banisters. They carried tension across their slitted lips and blame around their narrowed eyes.
On the opposite side, Commander Torin sat on a chair, with the two newly elected wardens to his left and right. His lips carried the same tension, if not more, but I couldn’t find any blame in his eyes.
The guards put me on a chair at the center, on display for the entire assembly to tear me apart with questions I either had no answers to or answers but no proof. Above me, a single fan hummed its monotone phowt…phowt…phowt… in agonizing slow-motion.
Whispers grew louder, like a storm forming to the left of this chamber, but Commander Torin smoothed it with little more but a clearing of his throat.
He rose from his chair, his slow steps carrying him toward the center with his hands clasped behind his back. “Honored members of the High Court, I present you healer Melek of crop eleven, accused of the murder of warrior Kidan. As your Warden, I shall present the evidence to you in a neutral manner.”
“Has he not confessed already?” a High Judge called out. “Why let so many of us travel here from Cultum and Odheim if the accused admitted to the crime?”
Commander Torin stared down at himself and smoothed over his uniform, letting moments stretch to eternity before he folded his hands in front of him. “Vetusians and humans alike, the Empire is in discord over this case. Many will not accept his confession unless supported by a trial. While Cultum remains in a state of calm and order, let me assure you, Earth does not.”
“If there is unrest on this planet, perhaps the Wardens should revisit their current policies. I suggest we shall perform executions of those causing controversy in place of weddings.”
The Commander took a deep breath and held it, then let it escape through a strained smile. “Current policies have been established by votes and are neither your responsibility nor your concern. But aside from this, there has been a new development, which I shall present shortly.”
The judges glanced at each other before one of them asked, “Why has nobody informed us of this… new development?”
“I am afraid the information we received was too recent to be included when we summoned you. Nor did it mention the fact that an honorable member of our society has chosen to speak in healer Melek’s defense.”
My spine straightened at that, and I glanced around the room with as much confusion as the rest of the chamber. With Kael on his way to Earth, who would defend me? Eden was the only other person I could have imagined, but, as a human, she could not testify to my character.
The answer came in the form of a walking stick squeaking over the floor and soles dragging limp toward the center. I glanced over my shoulder, and what I saw gave me ample time to tie a knot into my guts.
Healer Nifal leisurely swung his walking stick forward, pushing down on it as if to test its grip before each step. He dragged his feet over the ground at Dunatal pace, and while some of the High Judges hid their groans behind palms, Commander Torin seemed to conceal a smirk beneath a lowered head.
“My apologies,” the old Vetusian said. “No good thing ever came from rush.”
“Honored High Judges,” Commander Torin said. “As your Warden, I am asking you to remember your duty to the Vetusian Empire, as well as the burden of your moral obligations to put personal prejudice aside.”
At the swipe of his hand, holograms formed at the center for everyone to see. Broken toilet tank lid. Strands of blond hair. Skin flakes. A body, eyes open, white.
The Commander pointed at the hologram of the corpse. “Healers determined suffocation as the cause of death, triggered by severe brain ischemia as supported by this hologram of the victim. His eyes had rolled into the back of his skull due to blood supply deprivation of the brain and were caught there in rigor mortis.”
“Healer Melek,” a judge said. “Investigators found traces of your DNA in the female’s holding facility. Do you admit that you have entered it without the authority?”
I gave a curt nod. “Yes, I did.”
“And why have you —”
“If I may.” Age trembled healer Nifal’s hand as he held it up, a thin smile lining his brittle lips. “I do not wish to interrupt, High Judge, but I need to voice my thoughts before they scatter. There is a question of utmost importance we need to bring forth to the accused.”
The High Judge sucked in his upper lip and gave a permissive wave, only for silence to swell the tension. Everyone glanced around, watching Nifal stare at my chair leg.
“Healer Nifal,” a High Judge said. “What is the question?”
“Oh, yes, yes. The question. Most certainly.” He swung his walking stick forward, checked the grip, then shoved a tired leg forward. “What was the question again…”
By the Three Suns, this male did all the dragging for me, and it might very well not even have been an act. The Commander glanced over his com, then let his eyes search for mine before he hinted a dip of his head.
“Healer Melek,” Nifal said and turned around to look at me. “Why did you seek out the female’s holding facility at the sun of the incident?”
I caught the Commander’s nod from the edge of my vision.
I took a deep breath and leaned back in my chair, folding and unfolding my legs several times before I said, “Umm… I had the feelin
g that she was in danger.”
“And is it not true that you found her struggling against the alleged victim, warrior Kidan, who was trying to force a physical bond onto the female, commonly referred to as rape on this planet?”
One of the judges thrust himself up. “Where is this allegation suddenly coming from? Is this part of the so-called new development? Where is the proof for this? How do you justify smudging the name of a warrior unable to defend himself?”
The Commander straightened his chest. “Please allow the accused to answer the question. Healer Melek.”
“It’s true,” I said. “He tried to rape her.”
“How can this be?” Scholars shoved in their chairs, some standing up to show their dismay. “Why by the Three Suns and all the deities in the universe would a matched Vetusian subject himself to such a crime?”
“And what about the weapon?” another High Judge asked. “Let us get back to the facts at hand, instead of accusing a dead Vetusian.”
“Something humans refer to as toilet tank lid,” the Commander said and pointed at the broken stone. “An item our cultural research team considered essential in creating temporary holding facilities which mimicked human habitats on this continent. They have since been replaced.”
“Fingerprints?”
The Commander eyed me from the side before he straightened. “Scholars only found the fingerprints of the mature female.”
Mumbles rushed through the rows of High Judges, the wide sleeves of their green robes floating around as they threw their hands up in dismay.
Until a fist came down on the rail before them like a meteor, cracking through the oxygen-depleted auditorium. Shaky legs lifted an old scholar onto his feet, and his arms trembled even as he clasped to the wooden barrier.
“What has happened to the surveillance footage?” he shouted. “Thirty-two sun cycles as High Judge, and never have I witnessed such incompetence.” Objections resonated the chamber, but the old male let a loud voice rumble from a frail body. “If the murder weapon only carries the fingerprints of the mature female, perhaps she should be executed as well for the help of the warrior’s murder. And if not that, then for that anomaly that is her link!”