Alien Paladin's Redemption (Warriors of the Lathar Book 13)

by Mina Carter

  “Then became us,” Indra breathed in wonder as she looked up at the guy on screen.

  Scientists had long since proved that human life on Earth had originated someplace else, but most people thought Humanity’s planet of origin had been Mars… Aliens had never entered into the equation. It was one thing knowing that your entire species had come from somewhere but a completely different matter to come face to face with one of your ancestors.

  “Well, sucks to be him. Doesn’t it?” she quipped, her automatic reaction to lighten the mood. “All that potential, and he dies here in a tank.”

  “That’s… not. No, this can’t be right.” Keris wasn’t listening to her, scrolling through the info on the little screen.

  “M’rln?” Nyek asked, his brows furrowed. “What is it?”

  “I think…” The AI straightened up and then turned and walked across to the other side of the lab. A station sat there but no screen, just an upright block like a lectern next to a depressed circle set into the floor. As she activated it, the circle rose to reveal what looked like a gate… like the type Indra had seen in spaceports. The kind you stepped through and they scanned you for anything hinky.

  Keris looked up at them. “None of these bodies were ‘alive.’ They were bio-printed for remote piloting.”

  14

  Nyek froze at the words. All he could hear in his head was his father screaming the words of one of his popular sermon-like rants.

  Blasphemy! This is against the will of the gods… you will bring ruin on us all!

  For a moment he remained locked in place and then, carefully, he looked up. She was right. The printer hummed softly with renewed power, standing empty at the moment, but the awful shape of the bio-tubes now made sense. One would slot into place within the printer, its mechanism spinning around and back as it wrought its blasphemic creation.

  “Remote piloting?” Indra asked, her expression curious as she stepped forward. Automatically he put an arm out to stop her getting anywhere near the devilish creation. Seeing the tubes had been bad enough. Thinking that unwitting beings had been trapped in there to die when the Cabal had abandoned this place but now… knowing what they really were, he understood why someone had tried to destroy this level.

  He would have as well.

  “A banned technology,” he explained on a rasp. “Scientists were trying to create an organic avatar to reduce the need for long starship journeys. One could simply slide into a remote link chair and wake on the planet that was required.”

  “Bloody hell… so like teleporting?” she breathed.

  “I am not familiar with that term,” he replied.

  “One moment you’re like… on Earth and poof the next you’re on a Lathar planet.”

  He shook his head. “No, there is no physical transference. Your own body remains on the planet of origin and only your mind transfers over to the new body.”

  “Sounds like it has all kinds of applications,” Stephens mused thoughtfully, walking around the printer. “Like cheating death.”

  Keris shook her head. “Not possible. The technology wasn’t perfect. The mind remained linked to the host body; they never could work out a permanent transfer. But there were other problems, not least of which was psychological issues within the pilots.”

  Indra frowned, leaning into Nyek’s hold. “What kind of issues?”

  Keris managed a one-shouldered shrug. It looked odd on her mechanical body. “There were issues with being in two biological bodies at the same time. Psychological fractures occurred—multiple personalities for the different bodies. The more times they transferred, the more often it happened. All pilots in the test program eventually went insane. So the technology was banned.”

  “And now remote piloting is only allowed if the avatar is nonbiological,” Nyek finished for her. He motioned toward Keris’s body. “Like M’rln’s current body or the combat avatars.”

  Stephens was still studying the printer. “Yeah, but that’s for people like us. Isn’t it? I mean Lathar or human… real people. No offence, Keris,” he added quickly.

  “None taken,” she said, inclining her head toward him.

  “Your point?” Nyek straightened up, his gaze directly on the human male. Stephens met it without flinching. Given that Nyek had almost killed him in the corridor earlier, would have killed him if Indra hadn’t stopped him, his estimation of the human increased tenfold. He might not be Lathar but he didn’t lack for courage.

  “Keris is not biological. She is an AI.” He looked toward M’rln where she stood impassively.

  At least, Nyek assumed she was impassive. The model of avatar she wore was, ironically given their current conversation, the kind warriors would use to remote pilot when a combat avatar was not required. Had she been a Latharian pilot, the faceplate would have reflected the features of her biological body, almost as if she wore a spacesuit. Because she did not have a body, it was blank. Still, he could almost see the longing in the set of her body… which was ridiculous. Machines did not have emotions nor express longing.

  “She is,” Nyek agreed. “But I fail to see the point of this line of conversation.”

  “You’re kidding me, right?” Stephens asked, incredulously. “You’re telling me that as superior as I keep being told the Lathar are, you can’t make a simple leap in logic?”

  Nyek growled in warning. “Be careful with your words, human.”

  Indra’s small hand on his chest stopped him surging forward.

  “He’s only asking a question. And a valid one. Plus,” she smiled up at him. “Compared to humanity, the Lathar are very literal. We think in different ways.”

  Her smile stopped him in his tracks, his anger deflating in a manner he’d never experienced before. Like her mere presence made everything right in his world.

  “We certainly do. However, I am not unintelligent enough to know what he was asking.” He looked up, his voice and expression serious. “No, we cannot and will not print a body for the AI. This technology is banned for a reason. And she,” he stabbed a finger at M’rln. “… is already an abomination. AIs should never be allowed to inhabit humanoid bodies. I’m surprised it hasn’t gone mad already.”

  “It has a name!” Stephens snapped, anger written into every line of his body. He drew closer to the AI, who was silent.

  “It is an abomination against nature!” Nyek threw back, his voice raising. “It might have you fooled, but it is not a person. It’s a machine. It cannot feel. It cannot love. Its thought processes and personality are driven by code and routines. It is an affront to the goddess herself.”

  Shaking off Indra he stalked toward Keris, getting up close to snarl down into its “face.”

  “If you did not have the protection of the champion’s name, believe me, I would already have put you down.”

  Stephens moved at the same time, growling as he lifted his weapon to Nyek’s head. “Step back away from her, asshole.”

  Nyek chuckled. The human seemed to have developed feelings for the hunk of metal and wires. “I suggest you take a second look at this thing you consider a person, human. You might find it’s not as friendly to humans as you might think.”

  He stepped aside to reveal that Keris had Nyek’s blaster in her hand. Aimed directly at Stephens.

  The human’s eyes widened, and he staggered back. “Keris?”

  The AI dropped the pistol, looking at her hands.

  “I-I… I did not mean to do that,” she whispered, her voice shaken and seemingly on the verge of tears. The only problem was, machines didn’t have tear ducts. “I didn’t even think.”

  Nyek scooped up his pistol and shoved it back into its holster with a soft click. He walked past Stephens, patting him on the shoulder as he went.

  “AIs are programmed to protect Latharian life first. Didn’t you wonder why she didn’t come to your aid in the corridor? Bluntly put, human, your pet AI here would have shot you on the spot if you’d hurt me.”

  Nyek
strode from the sector without a word, even ignoring Indra when she called out to him. Leaving it behind him, he continued walking right through the command center and down the corridors back toward the shuttles.

  He dropped into the pilot’s seat of the shuttle with a sigh and ran his hand over his stubble. He needed a little space. Away from humans. Away from their word games and childish view of reality. To them it seemed so obvious. The AI needed a body and they’d found a way to get it one. They were so focused on the here and now that they did not see the wider implications or risks.

  He did.

  Turning his wrists outward, he idly studied the marks there. Twin scars where the blades of the Vesh ritual had bitten deep into his flesh, opening his veins to allow his lifeblood to drain from them. They’d left him there, before the altar of the lady, to see if she would allow him to live or take him into her embrace to dwell forever at her side.

  Only the lady had decided whether his crime deserved life or death. And to this day he wasn’t sure if he’d been rewarded… or left to live to be punished further.

  Blasphemer! It’s your fault your mother was taken from us. You killed her!

  He closed his eyes against the sound of his father’s voice in his head. Normally he kept it locked in the smallest box in the back of his mind, silenced and impotent against the gag he placed on it. But seeing the printer… knowing what the humans wanted to do… the voice had escaped, and he couldn’t get it back into its cage.

  With a groan, he pushed the heels of his hands against his eyes. The humans would bring disaster down on them all. The Cabal had operated in the shadows for a reason. If the court had known what they were up to, they would have been hunted down and stopped. And for the emperor’s own litaan to be involved…

  A chirp from the comms console caught his attention. It was a short-range communication. He frowned, sitting up. They were in the ass-end of beyond, a tiny system so unremarkable it was little more than a number on a star chart. And no one knew they were here. Who could be calling them?

  “This is S’Vaan. Identify yourself,” he ordered, opening a channel.

  The screen in front of him crackled with a spark of static and then a face appeared in front of him. Nyek sucked in a hard breath as he looked at his own reflection.

  “Hello, brother,” his twin smirked. “Miss me?”

  For a moment, Nyek remained speechless. Younger by mere minutes, Tavik had always been their father’s favorite. Even more so when he had not manifested the same blood disorder that Nyek had. Ravel had seen that as proof of Nyek’s inferiority, even though the two boys were identical in every other way, and favored Tavik. Convinced by their father that he was superior in every way to Nyek, he’d always been arrogant and boastful. That he hadn’t changed was evident in his expression as he looked at Nyek.

  “Still using our family name, runt?” He chuckled. “Mind you, I am not surprised. It is the only claim to greatness you will ever have.”

  “What do you want, Tavik?” Nyek asked, keeping his voice calm and level. Like most bullies, Tavik always looked for a reaction from his victims. Nyek had long since learned not to give him one.

  But still, concern swirled in his chest. If his brother was close, he might stumble on this place, and Nyek didn’t have the manpower or armament to protect the females under his care. If Tavik found out about them…

  “Can’t a litaan contact his brother now? Not even to congratulate him on his promotion?” Tavik leaned forward, a leer on his face. “So whose cock did you suck to get sub-commander, Nyek? Because we both know you don’t have what it takes to get there on your own… Not a Vesh like you.”

  He leaned back with a sneer and Nyek had never hated his own face so much in his life.

  “Vesh I might be,” he threw back. “But at least I do not dance at the beck and call of a deranged stovantar like our father.”

  Tavik laughed. “Of course, you would cast shade on our father. Especially given his ascension. He is the prophet of Ursal-Kai… and we know full well how to deal with blasphemous traitors like you.”

  Nyek’s eyes widened, a burst of surprise rolling through him. Their father had always been religious, even verging on fanatical. Every transgression during their childhood had been seen as an affront to the gods and, whether it had been Nyek’s fault or not, he had been punished for it. As their father had grown steadily more insane, even the most minor transgressions had become more severe in his eyes, and so had the punishments.

  So it did not surprise him that Ravel had slid into the kind of insanity that led him to believe he was actually a prophet of Ursal-Kai. The most vicious and hardline of the Latharian gods, followers of Ursal-Kai were the worst of the purist movement, and it seemed the rest of his family had joined their ranks.

  “I am sure you do. But the question still remains as to why you contacted me. I want nothing to do with you, nor you me. So, there must be a reason for this call.”

  Tavik’s eyebrow rose slightly on the left as it always did when he was being smug and knew something Nyek did not.

  “Well, actually, brother… you contacted me first. Nice little trick with the trans-dimensional gate. That nearly threw us, but with our seers on board, we managed to track you.”

  The only ships he’d contacted recently were the pirate ships…

  “You finally went rogue and left the empire.” Realization colored his voice. His brother had been on the pirate ship.

  “Those on the side of god and justice are often mislabeled by unbelievers.” Tavik leaned forward in a burst of movement. “You have something I want.”

  Nyek arched his own eyebrow.

  “I am sure I have nothing you could not have achieved on your own merits and skills,” he replied, unruffled. He was familiar with this guessing game and refused to participate. To do so risked handing Tavik more information than he currently possessed.

  “We know you have females with you. You will hand them over to us or we will destroy you.”

  Nyek let his expression set into bland lines. “I think you might have been drinking too much of the ceremonial wine, brother, or did you forget the plague? The Lathar have no women.”

  Tavik’s slow smile was triumphant, his eyes sparkling with malevolence. “Oh, I am more than aware of that. But you have human females with you. You will hand them over.”

  Draanth. He knew. How he knew about the humans, Nyek had no idea, but he did, which made this situation all the more dangerous.

  “If I had such females, which, given my lowly status within the empire is highly unlikely, I would have taken a vow to protect them and thus would never hand them over to you.”

  “Vows to the false emperor are invalid!” Tavik spat, his temper flaring immediately. It always did when he didn’t get what he wanted. “You were brought up as a follower of Ursal-Kai. You should bow to the will of your god, as mandated by your prophet!”

  “I do not follow Ursal-Kai.” Nyek lifted his chin. “I am Vesh and I follow the Lady Liaanas herself.”

  Tavik did not answer that, perhaps unwilling, even in his fanatical belief in his god, to risk the anger of another. He tilted his head.

  “You have claimed one. Haven’t you?” He chuckled. “Poor little Nyek, who wouldn’t touch any of the whores, finally found a female he’d be willing to shove his dick into. I bet she’s a pathetic, weak little thing. The best a runt like you could get.”

  Nyek hid his smile as the jibe went so wide of the mark it was practically in a different star system. For a second he wished he could put Tavik and Indra in a room together. His fierce little human would make mincemeat of his brother with her tongue alone. Never mind what she could actually do with her blade.

  But riding on the back of that thought came the absolute certainty that he never wanted Tavik and Indra anywhere near each other. Tavik was obsessive. Always had been. Whatever Nyek had, even something so small and insubstantial as a yaari berry, he had to have it. If he knew Nyek had claimed Indra,
he would burn entire star systems to take her from him.

  “I have claimed no female,” he said, lifting his chin in challenge and hiding the wrench of his heart at the lie. It was the only way to keep Indra safe. “The humans are small and unappealing. I admit, I was curious and succumbed to temptation, but none of them can hold a warrior’s interest for long.”

  Tavik searched his expression in silence and then broke into laughter. “Jilan’s tits, you actually did. Didn’t you? You cold-hearted bastard. Well, if they don’t hold appeal. You will not mind handing them over. Will you?”

  “That will never happen,” Nyek growled. “I made a vow and I will keep it.”

  “Then you will die.”

  “So be it. Goodbye, Tavik. May we never meet again.”

  15

  Unappealing… not hold a warrior’s interest for long…

  The words rolled through Indra’s head in a sickening loop as she stalked back to the command center. To think she’d trusted Nyek… more than trusted him. She’d fucked the guy, for heaven’s sake. Had even been disastrously close to opening her heart to him. And now this. After all his talk of wanting her to belong to him, of wanting to see to all her “needs”… and he’d never intended for them to last. Like countless women before her, she’d been caught by a handsome face and pretty words.

  Grumbling in the back of her throat, she dashed the tears from her eyes with the back of her hand.

  “Place is too full of fucking dust,” she muttered and stalked through the empty command deck. For a moment, she half hoped Miisan, the AI, would come back online so she could tell her what fucking jerks Latharian men were. Somehow, though, she suspected the alien woman already knew that.

  Reaching the corridor beyond, she marched straight up to the door she’d seen Stephens and Keris go through. It led into a suite just like the one she had been sharing with Nyek, which she was so never setting foot in again.