Shadows of the Night (Kingdom Key Book 2)

by TylerRose.

  “Largely true.”

  “What about being with family? What about when your mother or father die?” she asked.

  “In the days of our earliest people, we went forth from a village and there was no way to easily go back. We communicated village to village through drums. Our philosophy developed to include a forward-thinking concept. Yes, we are sad when parents or siblings die. Sometimes we do want to go back. Ships do return with some supply or whatever; but we don’t go back to stay more than a day. There is no guilt associated with not going back because we are expected to continually go forward. We make a colony. We make children. When those children are old enough to move on themselves, some of them do. Some remain to continue the civilization and successive generations are born to leave.”

  “An interesting society,” she remarked sincerely. She would study it more.

  They arrived at Medical. First order of business was a comprehensive scan.

  “Do you know that you are pregnant?” the doctor asked.

  She took a breath, taking in the confirmation. “I thought I might be. How far along?”

  “A few days.”

  “I want to get rid of it. Take care of that for me.”

  The medical staff and Vanja all stared at her, various forms of horror and disgust on their faces.

  “We cannot do that,” the doctor said. “It is against Drakkorian law, religion and philosophy to abort a healthy child from a healthy mother. Children are our sacred charge, the promise for our futures. You bless us with your very presence on our ship.”

  “We can address that another time,” Vanja cut in, seeing her rapidly growing distress. “Most important right now is to get this thing off your neck.”

  Tyler said nothing, too angry at the moment to trust her tongue.

  “It is a counterfeit device,” the Security Chief said, pointing to the screen he was looking at. “A genuine device has a little key hole on the bottom edge. Put the key in, enter the code, and it opens. This one is a press and turn release.”

  He took a tool from his belt and pulled open a tiny stick.

  “This should do it,” he said, stepping around behind her to find the hole. “It may hurt when the device deactivates. Prepare yourself.”

  She thought she was prepared. Holding the band in place, he inserted the tool and pressed. The two ends popped apart and her brain exploded with pain. A million red hot stabs, all in her right temple and through her eye, hard enough to force her to lie on the bed lest she pass out. Nauseating enough that her gut gripped in a dry heave before the wave leveled out. Within seconds, alarms and signals flashed and beeped and wailed all over the room.

  [Doctor, calls of debilitating pain are coming in from all over the ship] his assistant said.

  [No kidding. Vanja, silence her.]

  Vanja stepped closer to Tyler and took her hand. At once the doubled over doctor, assistant and Security Chief could stand up again.

  [What in the name of Terizxel was that?] the Captain shouted.

  The Security Chief responded. [A result of the mental chain being removed, Captain. Her telepathic abilities burst out. Vanja is containing them now.]

  [Get her some fresh clothes and bring her to my quarters. Keep her telepathically contained.]

  [Who will keep her contained on a daily basis?] Vanja asked.

  [You will, Lieutenant.]

  [My Bridge duties--]

  [Can be done by the second shift officer] the Captain interrupted. [You know so much about her, you get to deal with her. She’s going to have to stay with you in your room until she either learns control or we get her off the ship.]

  [Yes, Captain.]

  “What is the conversation?” Tyler asked, seeing they were having discussions around her.

  “Our Captain has ordered that I must stay with you to contain your very loud telepathic voice. Did no one ever teach you how to modulate it?” Vanja asked.

  “Not teaching me was very specifically done,” she complained with a perturbed expression. “I wanted to learn. I asked to be taught things. Earnol ignored me. I’ve had to learn almost everything myself.”

  “That would explain it. You know you are a powerful telepath. Your internal voice is like shouting. We will work on that first.”

  “What do you mean first?” she asked.

  “I am certain my Captain has something in mind,” Vanja said. “I’ll take you to my quarters and you can get a shower and change of clothes. He wants to see you in his quarters as soon as may be.”

  She froze, an image of Solomon’s rooms flashing through her mind. “Do I have to go to your room? Is there not one I can have to myself? Can there be a meeting somewhere other than private quarters? A conference room or something?”

  Vanja laid a gentle hand on her forearm to stop her growing panic. “It was he, wasn’t it?” he asked with lowered voice and knowing eyes. “The one who had stolen you from Sistair that time? He did it again, didn’t he? That’s where you’ve been.”

  “How do you know so much?” she asked with no small suspicion.

  “I have a sister on the Congress. She keeps me informed of interesting things. An employee being abducted and the Chief Administrator doing almost nothing about it was very interesting.”

  “He didn’t do anything about it. And yes. The same man. But much, much worse. In too many ways.”

  “He beat you not long before your escape, didn’t he? There is faint bruising around your eyes.”

  Her face turned down in shame and he did not try to stop her.

  “Let’s get you into a warm shower and a change of clothes. You can burn this if you like,” he said, indicating the shirt she wore.

  “I’d like to put it on him and stab it a thousand times with an ice pick,” she replied.

  “I do not blame you for one second. I also understand why you want to be rid of the child. There will be much to discuss. Will you trust me enough to be alone with me? All I can do is swear to you I will never harm you in any way. You’re a girl. I like men. So…don’t take this personally? But yuck.”

  She chuckled at her own paranoia. “Just don’t come up on me suddenly and we’ll see how it goes,” she said, guard aura still visibly up.

  When she had to use a toilet so badly, it hadn’t mattered nearly so much. With that emergency removed, having been told they would not abort her unborn, she was becoming aware of her personal vulnerability.

  “I will not come in,” he promised after showing her how to operate the shower.

  He kept to that promise. He could contain her from outside the door, if barely. He sent the Operations Tech a message asking if she could part with an outfit for the visitor. She brought a long tunic and close fitting leggings from her casual wear, and took it into the bathing room.

  “Goodness,” she said, staring at a large bruise on Tyler’s back.

  “It’s still there?” Tyler asked, turning to the mirror to see the fist-sized bruise. “It was bigger. He liked to punch that spot to stop me from having an orgasm.”

  The Ops officer blinked repeatedly, taking that in. “I’m so sorry.”

  “Why? There’s nothing you can do about it.”

  “I mean about the baby. I understand why you want it gone. I would too, regardless what our society says. You have time, though. You can go back to the Congress and take care of it whenever you want up to a point. It is many weeks before you absolutely must decide that.”

  A thought that remained with Tyler while she combed out her hair and got dressed. She tried to bring her journal to her hands but could not. Either she didn’t have all her abilities back yet or Vanja was preventing her from using them. She asked.

  “I only prevent you from overwhelming the others with the power of your telepathic voice,” he answered. “If you cannot do other things you normally would, it’s because of the mental chain. It will come back with time. The question is how long, since it was not a genuine device. Counterfeits are often poorly calibrated and overcom
pensate on the lowest settings.”

  “He kept it so high most of the time, I could barely move,” she said, becoming more angry than grieved about the situation she had escaped.

  They entered a lift, and she thought it interesting that an elevator was an elevator and it seemed no society had very much altered the basic design of a box that went up and down. Up they went three levels, the lift activated telepathically by Vanja.

  He knocked on the correct door and received a verbal command to enter.

  “Captain Groaty, may I introduce Tyler, First Daughter of Voran III. Tyler, this is Captain Groaty, a fifth generation descendent of explorers who left Drakkar in this very ship.”

  “I can’t teleport yet. How quickly can you get me to the Congressional Station?” she asked.

  Captain Groaty stifled a laugh. “That cannot ever happen.”

  “Why not?” she asked.

  “I don’t have clearance to fly into that section of the quadrant. I can take you to Balnaatrus, which is just over the border into Delta Quadrant. Or I can take you to Ercoli, which is the farthest into the population zone I’m allowed to go. They are both within six to ten day’s travel depending on speed. That’s as far out of my path as I’m willing to go without orders from Command; but you have to pick one or the other because they’re in opposite directions. In that time, Vanja will teach you to control and modulate your telepathic voice. If your abilities come back before then, you can teleport away to wherever you want to go.”

  “Is it really that loud? No one has ever told me before,” she said.

  “To have that kind of a wave overtake my people? Yes, it is very loud.”

  He gestured Vanja to the table.

  “I’m sure you’re hungry,” Vanja said to her. “Shall we sit?”

  The strange sensation of sitting at a table for the first time in months. A sensation of déjà vu that she’d done this before. She’d been away from table for a very long time and then was made to sit at table to eat. Perhaps a dream she wasn’t remembering?

  The Captain brought already compiled plates from the food machine in the wall.

  “We have rather an advanced food system, thanks to our ties to the Balnaatrus,” he said, placing the platter before her. “Eat as much as you want. There’s no danger of running out.”

  A form of poultry, several types of vegetables, bread. She wasn’t going to be picky about anything. Bite after bite, controlling herself so she didn’t stuff herself like a pig. She finished every bite on her platter during the discussion.

  “Would you be willing to let me stay longer so I can learn more?” she asked.

  “You were in a hurry to get to the Congress. What changed?” Captain Groaty countered.

  “All this time, I’ve been given almost no help learning to control and use my abilities. Earnol preferred I die rather than teach me. You know what he confessed to. That was only a fraction of what he’s actually done. If you are insistent that Vanja will teach me modulation, what else could he teach me?”

  “How to use every ability you have, I’m sure,” Groaty said. “Drakkorians are the second most telepathic species in the quadrant, behind Sistarians.”

  “You have a crystal on your planet also?” she asked.

  “No. It’s completely uninfluenced. You want to be rid of the unborn,” he reminded her.

  “I have time,” she echoed the woman who had loaned her the outfit. “I was frustrated at the lack of assistance I received. If you are offering to help me, then I must seriously consider that offer. The problem is that the man I escaped will be looking for me. He likes to teleport in from nowhere to snatch me. He’s twice killed someone I was with.”

  “That cannot happen here. We have teleport traps that cannot be lowered except by my personal order,” Groaty shook his head. “Our firepower easily exceeds the top end of most ships out here.”

  “Most,” she repeated. “He cannot ever get his hands on me again. Especially now I’m pregnant with his spawn. He wants to breed me to make little telepaths for him to turn into a criminal team. It’s ridiculous but he’s crazy enough to mean it.”

  The Captain’s aloof irritation vanished. “He wants to breed you specifically to exploit the abilities your children might be born with?”

  Mouth full of her next bite, Tyler only nodded. She saw a darkness fill his eyes and his expression harden.

  “Vanja, you will teach her everything she can learn about her own abilities. You are relieved of your Bridge duties until the child is born.”

  “But—“ Tyler started, voice cut off by her own need to drink and swallow.

  “What he wants is an outright crime in our philosophy, Tyler,” Groaty said. “The mother is a blessed vessel. You honor my ship and my people simply in being here. You have been delivered into our hands and we are charged with keeping you and your child safe.”

  “If he ever knew I had his baby—“ She couldn’t continue that thought. It was too horrifying to think, let alone say.

  “Vanja’s containment of your broadcasting plus our teleport shields and traps will mask your presence. We’ll sail the further reaches until you are near your time. We have a Reverend Imam onboard. He is the spiritual leader of our people, rather like the Ercoli priests. He will be talking with you. When the time comes, we will return to Drakkar and he will explain the situation to his superiors. If you want, they will protect and raise the child and he or she will be afforded every opportunity our planet has to offer just like any native orphan or surrendered child.”

  Glass of water in her hand, she sat back to think a moment. Was this offer too good to be true, like so many others? Could they actually protect her? Everyone else had failed her.

  “Let us sit and be comfortable,” the Captain gestured to his sitting area.

  She went, taking the chair so she wouldn’t have to share, and lowering herself to it in the straight up prim and proper posture she’d become accustomed to when visiting Encito and Alila.

  “You would be willing to engage in a ship to ship battle for me?” she finally asked.

  “More to save the life of an unborn you would destroy,” he said. “It is your right to leave and do as you choose. I do not stop you and I do not judge you for that choice. It is yours to make and I do not tell you that you cannot. I say that we cannot assist you in that end. At the same time, it is my duty to do what I can to help an unborn to grow and live. If protection from someone who hurts you is what you require, then protection from that someone is what we will provide.”

  She absently rubbed her fingertips over the callous on her arm from the cuffs.

  “Vanja will take you to Medical tomorrow. See if the doctor can’t help you take care of that blemish.”

  She only nodded, too deep into her own thoughts to comment.

  [Then take her to the Reverend Imam. I think they should talk for a while before you begin to teach her] he said telepathically to Vanja.

  [I’m right here] Tyler interjected.

  The Captain regarded her with an expression of disbelief. “You heard me say that to him?”

  “Yes. Why? What’s the big deal?” she asked.

  “One on one telepathic discussions are a closed circuit. We use a different bandwidth, as it were, for open communications in a group. You should not have been able to hear that.”

  “Well, I did. Thank you for the meal and the conversation. I’m very tired. I’d like to go lie down,” she said, getting up and already heading for the door.

  Vanja was close behind, and brought a chair over to the bed in his room so that he could be closer while she rested. She remained still, on the edge of sleep, for hours, then sat up against the wall and a satchel appeared in her hands. He said nothing about her abilities coming back already, holding his tongue to not interrupt her.

  She took a small book out of the bag and made a copy of it. Pen in hand, she started writing. An hour and a half later, the book was full and she made another copy of the original blank.
Hour after hour she wrote, filling book after book as words poured forth from her pen like water over the falls. She started with the picnic and wrote everything she could remember, day after day of it. Every beating, every rape. All of it. She wrote what she could of her escape. Another book started and she wrote of these few hours on the Drakkorian ship, their extraordinary offer to help her learn. She left out everything about the baby she carried. She would never write a word about him.

  Pisod arrived to check on Tyler’s homeand be sure all was well. He blinked to see the empty chair in her room. She had always put her messenger bag on it whenever she’d come home. The bag was gone. A quick glance and he saw her pipe was still in its spot, untouched since the day Shestna took it out of her hands because he wanted to get serious about making a baby.

  “Be seen Neverseen.”

  “How may I serve, Your Highness?” asked the male who came into view.

  “The First Daughter’s travel bag is gone from its place. Did you move it?”

  The Neverseen turned to look at the empty chair. “No, Master. It has been there every day. This is the first I have seen it is missing. It was there earlier today. I swear it.”

  Pisod smiled to himself with the realization that she was alive. The first thing she always did after a big event was get a journal and write in it.

  “I believe you. Thank you, Neverseen. Go about your day.”

  Teleporting into the palace, he ran at full speed to the royal apartment. His father’s eyes questioning, Pisod dismissed every person except for Dorn. Moving in close, he kept his excitement contained.

  “Tyler is alive, Father,” he said just above a whisper. “She has taken her daily bag.”

  “Did she come here to get it?” Encito asked.

  “Doubtful. She probably brought it to herself, wherever she is. There’s no way to track it. I can guess at other things she may want and put a note inside.”

  “Do so. Tell her we welcome her home whenever she is ready to return.”

  Pisod left to that task, Dorn stopping him in the corridor to give him a memory card. No words exchanged. Pisod only nodded and continued to the teleport pad near the Palace’s entrance.