“Perhaps there are other means to persuade you.”
I kept my resolve until SrrokVar began walking over toward Gael Kelly. The terror in the Terran’s eyes made me shout at the Hsktskt to stop.
That didn’t get his attention, but the sight of TssVar and Reever entering the main chamber did.
“OverLord. OverMaster.” SrrokVar sounded pleased. “I was just preparing to begin a new series of interrogations.”
“Release the female,” Reever said.
“I fear I cannot.” SrrokVar heaved a rather human-sounding sigh. “I discovered her concealing this escaped prisoner. In your chamber, OverMaster.” He turned around and flicked a limb toward me. “I’m sure you were unaware of her illicit activities—or did you know she consorts regularly with this Terran male?”
“That’s a lie!” I jerked against my restraints. “I was just helping him, for God’s sake!”
Reever ignored SrrokVar and spoke directly to his commander. “This female was joined to me, and our unity recognized by the Faction. I will not permit Lord SrrokVar to damage the future nurturer of my young.”
“She’s not breeding, OverMaster.” SrrokVar held out a data pad as evidence. “Perhaps due to her refusal to consort with you?”
TssVar faced me. “Is this true? You refuse him?”
A huge force slammed into my mind. Tell them you have been willingly intimate with me.
Go to hell.
Which naturally led to me being turned into an instant puppet.
“I’ve never refused to consort with my husband,” I heard myself say in a monotone. “I do so, willingly and frequently.”
“Then why isn’t she pregnant?” SrrokVar pretended to look askance. “I should run reproductive viability tests on the female, to assure she is capable of providing ample young.”
TssVar gazed at me. “It would be advisable, HalaVar.”
“I assure you, OverLord, Cherijo will breed, very soon. Now release her.”
“Very well.” SrrokVar reluctantly removed my restraints, and pulled me out of the chair. Reever used his mental control to force me to walk to his side, then lift my arms and embrace him. His hand stroked over my disordered hair.
“You see? She is uncommonly affectionate.” He dropped a kiss on my brow, and I swore silently that I was going to rip his lips off the very moment he dropped the link. His voice changed as he looked at SrrokVar. “Should you attempt to experiment on my mate again, I will petition the Hanar to strip you of all rank at once.”
Reever walked me out of the crying chambers, and before the door panel closed I heard Gael Kelly start screaming again.
This has to end, Reever. You can’t keep lying to them about me. And while you’re at it, get out of my head.
I wasn’t lying, Cherijo. You’re going to carry my child.
Before I could react to that bald statement, Reever did something that made my mind go hazy. Before I’d gone another step, I fell forward into unconsciousness.
I woke up in the infirmary, with Paul and Geef watching over me. I groaned and clapped a palm to my aching brow.
“What did he do, hit me with something?” I eyed the nearest console and sat straight up. I’d been out for nearly twelve hours. “Who drugged me?”
“No one, far as I know.” Paul edged off the chair he’d been sitting in next to my berth and helped me up onto my feet. “You okay, Doc?”
I felt like I’d been run over by a platoon of Hsktskt. “Yeah, I’m fine. Long story.”
“If you are, then Geef and I should be released. We have to get things started.”
I signed the discharge orders and wished them both luck. “Talk to a League Lieutenant named Wonlee, he’ll help you.”
After I sent my friends on their way, Pmohhi informed me that a signal was waiting for me on the infirmary console. I accessed it, and found a prerecorded message from SrrokVar.
“My congratulations on an excellent performance, Doctor. You were most convincing.”
Too bad he couldn’t hear me. “I didn’t have anything to do with it.”
“I also wanted to inform you that your other Terran consort, Kelly, will be executed in two rotations. My condolences.”
“No. No!”
Throwing caution to the winds, I ran back and slipped into the access tunnel and went to find Noarr myself. More of the black crystal growths had sprung up in the passages, making navigation even more difficult. After an hour of wandering, I was tired and ready to admit defeat.
I was also completely, totally lost.
I sat down next to one of the gleaming black flows and rubbed an idle hand against it. “You’re beautiful to look at, but as a landmark you leave a lot to be desired.”
“You do not.”
I should have decked him, but I was too relieved. “Where have you been? I’ve got so much to tell you! Two of my friends are here, and—”
“There’s no time. I’ve arranged to have you transported from Catopsa. The ship must leave at once. Come.” He pulled me toward another passage.
“Wait. I can’t go anywhere. Gael Kelly is going to be executed tomorrow. We have to get him out of the crying chambers and off this rock. Now.”
“Kelly.” Noarr halted. “I know him. He has been here a long time.”
“Then you know what he’s been through. You have to help me.”
“Cherijo.” He slid his flippers up to cradle my face. “You are in danger here. You must leave. I will free Kelly after you go.”
“I’m not going. We’ve been through this before.” He couldn’t make me go. Not until I shut down SrrokVar’s operation, and took care of a few other things. “Is there a way to get into the crying chambers from here?”
He dropped his flippers and made a frustrated sound. “Possibly, if the tunnel has not been cut off by the black growths.”
“Show me.”
It took time, and some climbing at certain points. As we passed through the tunnels, I noticed that the Lok-Teel clung in droves to some of the growths, while others remained bare.
At last we reached the tunnel that led directly into SrrokVar’s main chamber. Through an unglazed aperture, I spotted Gael in the holding cell. Blood stained his tunic, but he was speaking to one of the other prisoners, so his injuries must not have been too bad.
“How do we free him?”
“Watch.” Noarr brushed past me and crawled down into a small side corridor too low to walk into. Minutes later, the crystal behind Gael swung inward, and he uttered a short cry as a cloaked arm pulled him back into the rock. The other prisoners showed little reaction to what had happened, and suddenly I realized why. No wonder all those severely injured prisoners had walked out of SrrokVar’s hands and over to my infirmary. Noarr must have been pulling them out of the cell all along.
But why hadn’t SrrokVar raised the alarm when he found them missing?
“Dote.” Gael gave me a hug, then grabbed his arm and groaned. “Uh, forgot, I’m a bit flitters. My thanks for pulling me out of that perishing hole.” He gazed around at the tunnel. “Grand, this is.”
Noarr towered over him. “We do not have time for a tour.”
“Yeah, he’s right.” I smiled at Gael. “I’ve got a one-way ticket for you to get off this place. Are you game?”
“Bejappers, you have?” Gael chuckled, then sobered abruptly. “My thanks, but I’m not bolting from here just yet.”
Noarr pointed to the corridor that led back to the main compound tunnels. “Let us discuss this when we move out of this area.”
In a hushed voice, I argued with Gael the whole way, but was unable to get him to agree to leave Catopsa.
“If it was just me, I would, dote. But I have skin here, and I can’t be abandoning them.”
“Skin?”
“Friends.”
The sincerity in his voice made me glance at Noarr. “See? I’m not the only one.”
“Jesus, Mary, and Joseph.” Gael studied the latest outcropping of black
growths. “Clearing this muck out should come first.”
“Your offer is appreciated,” Noarr said. “But I prefer to work alone.”
We had arrived at the access panel to the infirmary, and I made both males slip inside with me. “I have more to tell you,” I said to Noarr as he closed the panel. “And I want to do a thorough scan of Gael for his injuries.”
The concealment of the partition vanished, and a huge Hsktskt shadow fell over us. It was FurreVa. Probably reporting for that follow-up exam, I recalled, and silently groaned.
“How did these males get in here?”
Gael didn’t move. I stepped forward, groping for some rational explanation. Noarr decided to be cute and make a grab for the Hsktskt’s rifle. FurreVa fired it, and the pulse smashed into his side. Dark blood soaked his cloak, and I gasped. The alien tossed a tray of instruments at FurreVa, who threw her limbs up to protect her new face. Before any of us could blink, Noarr dropped down onto the floor. By the time my eyes went from where he’d been standing to the floor, he had vanished.
FurreVa searched the entire infirmary, then took me and Gael into custody.
“Where are you taking us?” I asked her as she marched both of us out into the corridor.
“To OverLord TssVar.” The weapon she held on us never wavered. “He will decide what discipline is required.”
During the short walk from the infirmary to Central Command, I decided I’d take whatever discipline was involved. Gael had already displayed an distinct aversion for torture, and letting TssVar work him over might jeopardize Noarr’s safety.
“How did they know we would be doing a bunk there?” he said as we approached TssVar’s chamber.
“Huh?” I’d been busy pondering the sort of discipline TssVar would administer, and took a moment to process the question. “You mean FurreVa? She was reporting for a follow-up eval.”
“I’m thinking she has a sleeveen working for her. One of those patchers you work with.”
I tried to imagine Vlaav, Zella, or Pmohhi spilling the beans to the Hsktskt. Zella might have, before she and I had worked out our little difficulties. Pmohhi had no love for the Hsktskt. Vlaav … perpetually nervous, pacifistic Vlaav … “I don’t think so.”
FurreVa pressed some keys to request permission to enter, then gestured for us to go in as the door panel slid to one side. TssVar sat behind a new, strange-looking console I hadn’t seen before, and rose slowly to regard me and Gael with glittering eyes.
“What has she done now?”
“I caught her hiding two prisoners. I detained this one”—FurreVa nodded toward Gael—“but the second escaped. He is injured, I will track him.”
“Carry on.” TssVar waited until FurreVa left before stomping around his new toy. “Members of the Faction do not harbor runaway slaves.”
“I guess someone forgot to give me the Faction rule book. This whole thing was my idea.” I ignored Gael’s incredulous stare. “Prisoner Kelly had no choice but to do as I told him.”
“An effort to deflect blame, Doctor?”
“No. Just taking responsibility for my actions.”
“SrrokVar indicated you were most reluctant to see others suffer in your place. A telling revelation about your character, he said.” TssVar scrutinized Gael for a moment. “This prisoner is a habitual problem. HalaVar will not be pleased to learn of this.”
“HalaVar can go skating on the surface without a helmet.” I smiled as though the thought amused me. My tunic started getting damp between the shoulder blades.
“I will allow prisoner Kelly to return to the general population,” the Hsktskt said. “In return for your information and cooperation.”
I had no idea where Noarr was, or where he regularly hung out, other than his ship. And he’d moved that. “Sure. Whatever you want.”
“You may go, Terran.” TssVar flicked a limb toward the door panel.
“OverLord …” Gael sent a panicked glance at me. “This bit of skirt is not—”
“You heard the OverLord, Kelly.” I shoved him toward the door with exaggerated impatience. “Get out of here. Shoo.”
A centuron was waiting outside. I watched until TssVar secured the door panel once more.
“So what information am I supposed to have?” I asked in a deliberately skeptical tone, then crossed my fingers behind my back. “This was only my second shot at slave concealment, you know. I’ve decided I’m terrible at it, and promise I won’t do it again.”
“You are still a habitual liar. Come around here.” TssVar resumed his seat behind the console, and pressed his claws into two Hsktskt-shaped palm pads. I circled around in time to see the dimensional simulators flicker into operation, and a large star chart take shape over the surface of the unit. “Do you know this region?”
Of course I did. I’d lived there for a year. And he knew it—his young had been born there. “No.” I scratched my scalp. “Doesn’t look very familiar.”
“Observe.”
Tiny holo ships began creeping in diagonal waves across the binary solar system. I’d seen a Hsktskt planetary invasion force—some three hundred star vessels in orbit around Joren—but this fleet had fifty times that many ships. I bent over to study one of the tiny holos, and bit the inside of my lip before I straightened.
“League troop freighters.”
“Yes. Seventeen thousand of them, we estimate, originating from more than thirty different systems.” TssVar pressed another pad, and the star chart shrank to a wide-view chunk of galaxy. The specs of light representing the fleet now barely inched through the simulation. “Notice their path, Doctor.” He highlighted one small white speck on the other side of the chart. “Catopsa’s present position.”
I didn’t have to draw a line with my finger to see that unheard-of forces were heading straight toward us. “You’d better think about relocating to a new neighborhood, OverLord.”
“Hsktskt do not retreat, Doctor.” He turned off the simulation and regarded me steadily. “Now you will tell me everything you know about League troop movements and tactics.”
Recalling he’d said the same thing when he’d told me about Joseph’s transmission, I exhaled a grateful breath of relief. “Which is practically nothing.” I thought about what I’d observed while on the Perpetua, and related the most harmless details of what I’d seen, ending with, “They will probably send their most experienced commanders, their seasoned troops. One doesn’t take on the Faction with trainees.” An idiot would tell him the same thing. “That’s all I can tell you—pure speculation, at best.”
“How does Joseph Grey Veil fit into this equation? He calls for an invasion, then informs the Hsktskt of the same. I understand warm-bloods and their penchant for betrayal, but this man has another agenda.”
Did he know he was sitting next to it? “Joseph Grey Veil is manipulative, but that’s like saying Catopsa is shiny.” I decided to be partially honest. “He’s obsessed with perfection, has no morals or conscience, and will do whatever it takes to get what he wants. That includes inciting the League to war one minute, and collaborating with the Faction the next. His goal is as much a mystery to me as it is to you.” No, it wasn’t. “But whatever he wants, he gets.”
“Except you.”
I let my mouth curl. “I don’t think even Joseph could convince thirty-some odd worlds to send that many ships after one individual. I’m not that important a lab rat.”
“Perhaps you are.”
I started sweating again.
TssVar kept me at the console for the rest of the day, as he showed me possible attack scenarios and questioned me about Joseph, the League, and what I thought might happen. I tried to sound stupid, without sounding stupid, and committed everything I saw and heard to memory. I couldn’t do anything to help the Hsktskt, but perhaps Noarr could use the information to assist the invasion and free the prisoners.
A centuron finally interrupted us with an urgent request for me to return to the infirmary.
&nbs
p; “The escaped League Commander has been recovered.”
I found what was left of Shropana strapped to a berth. His generally demented state didn’t concern me as much as the condition of his diseased heart did. I’d soon have to operate on him, with or without his permission. Then I ran the rest of my scans as he raved incoherently. He kept shrieking something about his eyes being put out.
I checked, of course. They were still intact, but milky cataracts had formed on the surface of his corneas.
“Patril. Patril.” I held his thrashing head still between my hands. “What happened to your eyes?”
“Couldn’t see, they blinded me, they shot me in the face from every direction….”
“These aren’t pulse burns.” When he didn’t respond, I huffed out an impatient breath and turned to the waiting centuron. “Where did you find him?”
“On the surface, Doctor.”
He shouldn’t be blind, I thought, only dead. “Where?”
“In the clearing beyond the compound perimeter. The one with the black outcroppings.”
Shropana tore one arm free of restraints and grabbed the front of my tunic. “They kidnapped me! They dragged me out there, the beasts, to sacrifice me! But I fooled them.” He chuckled, then started sobbing. “I fooled …”
“Well?” The centuron didn’t blink when I glanced at him again. “Is that how he got out there? Did one of the guards dump him on the surface?”
“It is unlikely, Doctor.”
I considered sedating Shropana, but opted for a mild tranquilizer and kept him on close monitor. After an hour, the centuron seemed satisfied that his escaped prisoner was incapable of making another break for freedom, and left me alone with him.
“Patril.” I leaned forward as he opened his eyes to stare at me with no small amount of confusion. “How do you feel?”
“Tired.” He gazed around, his eyes widening. “Don’t let him take me out there again. Don’t let him.”
“Who? Who took you? What did he do to you?”
“The low-browed one, he took me. Him and two of the other beasts.” Patril’s gaze darted as he frantically searched the room. “He tried to kill me. I saw. I saw everything.”
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