by Regine Abel
The door opening on Khel accompanied by Valena, forced me to rein in my wandering thoughts.
Tayana sat, hands and feet strapped to a chair, her head restrained by another strap around her forehead and attached to the tall backrest. A dampening collar ensured she couldn’t use any secondary ability she might possess. In light of her youth—maybe eighteen or nineteen—she was likely a second generation hybrid.
Seeing her in that state disturbed me. I hated interrogating females, but even more so a Veredian.
She glared at Lee with purple eyes, hatred written all over her delicate features. Thin lips and pointy chin, she could almost have passed for an Avean who also had silver hair. But her caramel skin and warrior markings indubitably labelled her Veredian. So far, we’d only gotten her name and that her sole purpose was to kill Tuureans. As we refused to torture her, not that Lee would have allowed it, we counted on Valena to take all the information we needed directly from her mind.
Tayana’s eyes flicked to Valena, warily watching her approach. She squinted with suspicion at Valena’s Nurturer markings. Khel stopped next to Lee and crossed his arms over his chest.
“Since you will not talk to us,” Lee said in a neutral tone, “I’m afraid we will have to take our answers without your consent. Please believe that we are sorry to resort to such methods.”
Tayana pulled on her restraints, her wary expression turning to anger and betrayal as she stared at Valena.
“How can you help that scum against your own Sisters?” Tayana yelled. “They are stealing us to enslave us. They use our powers to grow theirs!”
“Is that what your Guldan master has told you?” Valena asked in a soft voice.
Face closed off, Tayana looked off in the distance.
“The Tuureans are our friends, Tayana,” Valena said, her fingers gently caressing the assassin’s hair.
Tayana stiffened but kept her head straight and mouth closed. I shifted, involuntarily drawing her attention. She gave me an analytical once-over before staring off again. Xelixians and Veredians didn’t stir any aggression from her, only Tuureans.
Valena eyes glazed over the moment she cupped Tayana’s cheek with her palm. Unable to pull away from her touch, the assassin clenched her teeth and fisted her gloved hands. We didn’t know what power she possessed and couldn’t take any chances.
I studied Valena’s expression for any sign of what she was uncovering. Lips slightly parted, features tensed, her aquamarine eyes flicked from side to side as she explored Tayana’s psyche. She suddenly blinked then removed her palm, a troubled look on her face.
“Her conditioning is different from the previous cases I’ve seen,” Valena said.
“How?” Lee asked.
“Her mind swarms with images of Tuureans torturing Veredians. There’s even some crazy stuff about you essentially being robots with some biological components, namely a heart and a partial brain. That’s where they are taught to target.”
“TRAITOR!” Tayana yelled.
“Who is training them?” I asked. “And where does that training take place?”
Valena shook her head. “I can’t access that, yet. Her mind is riddled with traps. I have to tread carefully, or I could do permanent damages to her brain or even kill her.”
Tayana smirked. “Go on, keep digging, Traitor.”
“Can you bypass them?” Khel asked.
She nodded slowly. “Eventually, yes. But it will take time, especially because she’s fighting me. She will gladly die to protect her Sisters against any perceived threat.”
“Then why aren’t you fighting the Guldans?” I asked Tayana. “Surely you’ve seen what they’ve done to your Sisters in the reproduction fortresses.”
Tayana blinked, her eyes going blank.
“She’s been brainwashed,” Valena intervened. “Her entire past is one big void. They’ve wiped her memory to have a clean slate to imprint their conditioning.”
“That’s a lie!” Tayana growled.
“Really?” Valena asked. “Then what’s your earliest childhood memory?”
The same blank fell over the assassin’s face.
“I don’t have to answer the questions of a traitor.”
Valena placed her palm again on the side of Tayana’s face. Within seconds, the assassin cried out, her features contorted with pain. Valena removed her hand like it got burned, a horrified expression on her face.
“I’m sorry!” Valena said.
“What happened?” Khel asked, his voice oozing with concern.
“There are so many traps. Every layer I peel reveals another. It’s like a maze of knots. If I pull this one, it unravels that other one. And if I pull the wrong one, I could cause a chain reaction that could be fatal.”
“If she stopped fighting you, would you be able to help her?” Lee asked.
“Either way it will take time,” Valena said. “But yes, if she stops fighting me, it will reduce the risk, but not eliminate it.”
Movement at the corner of my eye attracted my attention. Lee unclasped her hands from behind her back and rubbed the side of her neck. The hesitancy, barely noticeable, indicated she debated whether or not to reveal herself. No doubt sensing my stare, her head turned toward me. I gave her a slight nod. She nodded back, understanding my unspoken words.
She usually waited until the brainwashed Veredians had been freed of their conditioning before showing herself but doing it now could shatter Tayana’s resistance.
“I am not your enemy, Tayana,” Lee said. “See for yourself the lie the Guldans have fed you.”
She tapped the sequence of her suit’s opening mechanism, and I once more watched with fascination how it deflated around her, losing its masculine silhouette before revealing Aleina’s luscious, yet muscular form. The now-familiar tingle at the base of my neck came to life, our soulmate bond no longer hindered by her armor. She absentmindedly rubbed her nape, telling me she, too, could feel it.
Eyes wide, mouth gaping, Tayana shook with denial.
“No. No. It... It can’t be. You can’t be.”
“It’s okay, little Sister,” Aleina said softly, her voice distorted by her modulator. She disabled it while approaching Tayana and gently caressed her cheek. “All is well,” she reassured in her natural, soft, and motherly voice.
“I wouldn’t hurt a Veredian. You’re not real! They said... they said...”
Khel and I exchanged a look. The girl’s agitation rose to worrisome levels. Aleina and Valena spoke comforting words, but Tayana seemed beyond hearing. Her body jerked and eyes rolled into the back of her head. When blood started trickling from her nose and ears, Valena grabbed the assassin’s forearm.
“Sleep,” Valena ordered.
Tayana’s body immediately went lax, all signs of tension and pain fading.
I tapped my com. “Minh, we need Maheva immediately in the interrogation room.”
“On our way,” he replied.
“What happened?” Aleina asked, visibly struggling to keep her emotions in check.
Had she been wearing her armor, her body language wouldn’t have revealed the extent of her distress. Her mask was a crutch she would eventually need to learn to live without.
Khel and I moved to free Tayana from the straps restraining her.
“She triggered some of the traps in her mind,” Valena said. “Whoever did this to her made sure she wouldn’t access memories that could threaten her conditioning.”
Khel picked up the young female and carried her to the table. He laid her down on top just as Maheva and Minh were entering the room.
“Will she be all right?” Aleina asked.
Maheva laid her hands on each side of Tayana’s face and focused. She emerged seconds later.
Maheva smiled reassuringly. “Yes, she will be fine.”
Her gaze shifted to me and broadened slightly. She looked pleased. I realized then that I had moved next to Aleina, who was now leaning against me. The urge to step back and the need
to wrap my arm around her shoulder to comfort her warred with each other.
The latter won.
She felt so frail and yet so strong beneath my touch. It startled her at first, and I almost expected her to shrug my hand off. Instead, she leaned deeper into me, her hand resting on my back.
What in Gharah’s name am I doing?
I didn’t mean to send her mixed signals. Minh and Khel’s stares weighed heavy on me, but I avoided them, not yet ready to deal with my own confused feelings. The soft warmth of Aleina’s body against mine made any rational thought impossible.
“It would be advisable to postpone any further interrogation until I’ve managed to unravel all the traps in her mind. It will take a while, as in weeks,” Valena warned. “I’d like Maheva to attend those sessions in case things get hairy. The same should apply with the other three girls.”
We all agreed.
With much reluctance, I pulled away from Aleina. She cast a furtive glance towards me, but I pretended not to see it.
I’m such a shit.
As per Xelixian tradition, I normally avoided physical contact, or rather, people usually gave me a wide berth. Having grown up deprived of the most basic maternal affection, touching and being touched made me uncomfortable. Amalia, with her typical Veredian touchy-grabby habits had somewhat made me more tolerant of it—not that she gave me much choice in the matter. But with Aleina, I craved it.
I’d never been so confused in my life, but I needed to get my act together quickly. She shouldn’t suffer because of my shortcomings.
Khel transferred Tayana from the table onto the hover-stretcher Minh had brought.
“Kamala and Sohr should be concluding their debriefing of the Xelixians we rescued,” Khel said. “Let’s see if they have some kind of lead for us.”
Aleina and I both nodded. Her armor reformed around her with a soft crackling sound. Grateful for the diversion, I followed in his wake, Lee by my side.
* * *
“Everyone, this is Lhen,” Kamala said, gesturing toward a Xelixian male in his late twenties. “Lhen, this is General Khel Praghan, his First Officer Ghan Delphin and my leader, Admiral Lee.”
Khel and I exchanged the Xelixian greeting with him while Lee performed the Veredian version. The poor male seemed out of place in our Situation Room. Tall and thin, he watched us with large blue eyes that looked both intimidated and awed. Like all the other Xelixians being farmed for their venom on Axios, his head had been shaved. Fingers interlaced on top of the conference table, he kept tapping the tips of his thumbs together in a nervous rhythm.
Sohr gave us a quick report on the state of the males who had been rescued. All would make a full recovery. Most had been released to their families, but a few were being transferred to their respective district’s hospitals for additional care.
As none had suffered critical injuries, we hadn’t allowed Maheva to tend to them. Despite increasing rumors circulating, we were keeping the lid on the Veredians’ abilities.
“How did they capture you?” Khel asked.
“A Terran male approached me on Jeruna,” Lhen said. “Many of us Tainted have moved to the Eastern Quadrant. There’s a lot of mercenary work to be had. And some luckier among us can land a gig on a pleasure barge. The salaries are decent, and they usually have a couple of females willing to let us have a drink at discounted rates.”
The Eastern Quadrant of the galaxy differed greatly from our quadrant. Slaves and indentured servants were commonplace there. Most planets there had abandoned any form of religion while here, in the Western Quadrant, most races worshipped the Goddess. We had fewer pleasure barges and less than a handful catered to Tainted males. So, for those of us who couldn’t qualify for a military career and didn’t want a life of hard labor, emigrating to the Eastern Quadrant offered many enticing opportunities.
“Do you know his name?” I asked.
“Paul Ramsay,” Lhen said, “though everyone calls him Paulie.”
“So what did he want? What did he offer you,” Khel asked.
“He said he had a few jobs and needed a lot of guards and mercs. He’s a well-known smuggler so I figured it was safe. For one of the jobs, he specifically asked for Xelixians. That got me curious.”
“Did he specify why Xelixians?” I asked.
Lhen shifted in his chair and rubbed his bald head.
“He said the client was in the pharmaceutical industry and needed large amounts of our venoms for their research. He didn’t know the exact amount of the compensation, only that it included three free drinks per week.”
“Enticing offer for very little effort,” Khel said.
“Exactly,” Lhen replied. “Rumors about Xelixian disappearances had started circulating in the Eastern Quadrant. Thing is, as most males were in the advanced stages of the Taint, we couldn’t say for sure if they hadn’t simply offed themselves or left on some shady gig they couldn’t really talk about.”
“Did you know you’d be drinking from Veredians?” Lee asked.
Lhen shook his head. “No. We all assumed they had Terran and Avean pleasure workers on retainer. But the minute the ship landed on Axios, we realized how screwed we were.”
“You were taken there?” Khel asked.
“Yeah. We thought Paul would be taking us to wherever that pharmaceutical company was located, but a ship with mostly Guldans and Terrans picked us up on Jeruna. They wouldn’t tell us much, which got me worried.” Lhen shuddered and a haunted look crossed his features as he reminisced about the events. “A Guldan-Xelixian hybrid named Varrek greeted us there.”
Khel and I exchanged a look. We had a lot of scores to settle with that bastard.
“He essentially told us that we were now his property. We would be expected to mate with Veredians three times a week, drink from them, and inject them with our Thylin two out of those three times. Those who refused would be given Dalyria so they couldn’t fight the need to mate.”
He cast a worried look towards Khel and me, his tone taking on a pleading edge.
“You must believe that we didn’t want to do this to those females. Not like this. Some of us even tried to escape and got beaten very severely for it. We didn’t have a choice!”
“Relax, Xelixian,” Lee said. “We are aware of Varrek’s ruthless methods. Korletheans received the same treatment, being forced to mate with Veredians. You do not stand accused of any wrongdoing.”
Lhen’s shoulders sagged, his relief palpable. Sex-related crimes on Xelix Prime were severely punished. I couldn’t blame him for being concerned.
“For the first couple of months, we were kept in a holding area, pretty much left to our own devices except for the compulsory matings. We realized later they were waiting for the Veredian’s oxytocin to enhance our venom. Then they would place us in stasis in the harvest rooms for three months. Then back to the holding cell for one month, then on and on in an endless, nightmarish cycle.”
He gave Khel a strange look, appearing confused.
“In all my time there, I didn’t see a single male get cured the way you have been or even have his Taint reduced as significantly as yours. The males who mated with the younger Veredians got the most reduction, but their Taint diminished just enough to have them maybe labelled Norms.”
Khel nodded. “It is to be expected as it only works with Geminates for now.”
“Ah, that makes sense.” Lhen scratched his chin, pensively. “Is that also why there were no pregnancies?”
“Yes,” Khel said.
“What of the Veredian assassins?” Lee asked. “Did you interact with them at all?”
“No,” Lhen said. “They were kept almost completely isolated from anyone. We saw them from a distance but were forbidden to approach them or talk to them in any way. I believed they got to spend some time with the other Veredians but very little.”
We questioned him for a short while longer before allowing him to leave the compound, as Minh had given him a clean bill of health. T
hey would, however, meet a couple more times in the upcoming weeks to make sure all was still well with him.
“Well, sounds like you’re all off smuggler hunting on Jeruna,” Khel said.
Although subtle, the wistfulness in his voice didn’t escape me. Khel was now fully committed to upholding his role as Anchor to his Geminate pair by keeping himself out of harm’s way. But he longed for the rush of battle. Lhor knew all too well what sacrifice Khel was making for him. As much as he appreciated it, it also made his fears resurface that his Gem would consider him a burden.
We discussed the details of the mission and agreed to depart the day after tomorrow.
CHAPTER 7
Amalia
Rhadames roared with laughter and tried to squirm away from me on the plush white carpet as I tickled his little navel. His Gem, Vahl, sitting across from us on his Papa Lhor’s lap, observed us with loving eyes. Zhara giggled, cuddled on Khel’s own lap in the armchair, encouraging me not to relent on my assault on her younger brother.
I loved this family time before putting our brats to bed. Sometimes, Maheva, Jhola, and their mates would join us, but they usually gave us privacy with our children. On a few occasions, Valena’s twins would come sleep over. Their parents, always intending to go back to their District of Xelhen, would systematically end up sleeping in one of the guestrooms, loathing to be parted from their children. I couldn’t blame them.
The one time Lhor and I had slept away from home had been tough. Worse still, I had almost lost both my mates in the last Blood House raid which took place the following morning. It scarred me enough to almost have a panic attack every time I considered not spending the night near our kids.
Taking pity on my youngest, I stopped tickling him. But just as I lifted my hand, a strange sense of weightlessness wrapped around me and my surroundings blurred. It lasted barely a second then I felt myself dropping back down as if into my body. I blinked, my mouth gaping at finding myself at the other end of the family room.