Children of Zanar 1: The Zanari Inheritance

by Niall Teasdale

  ‘That’s the wound taken care of,’ Geogracus said. ‘You should be fine to walk on that, but it may be sore for a few days.’

  ‘Uh, thanks,’ the merc said. Geogracus ignored him, twisting in the air and floating out of the infirmary toward his quarters. ‘That guy’s–’

  ‘A very good doctor,’ Thea interrupted. ‘Now, where did they go? We detected a dropship rendezvousing with your cruiser, and the cruiser left orbit for the hyper limit about twenty minutes ago. Where are they taking my friend?’

  ‘If I tell you that, I’d be betraying the company and they’d hunt me to the ends of the galaxy.’

  ‘After we left, my friend Jinny, who really likes guns and explosives, triggered the bombs she put in your ammunition stores. The Kraggans probably think you’re dead, and even if they don’t, there probably aren’t enough of them left to come after you. Now, where did they take her?!’

  ‘Giltanish!’ the merc blurted. ‘They took her to Monteagle’s place on Giltanish Prime.’

  Thea smiled. ‘There, that wasn’t so hard, was it? One last thing. Just a side question. Were you involved at all in an operation out to a little backwater colony called Sadrine’s Drift earlier this month?’

  ‘Nope, not my op.’

  And Thea watched the flickers of memory dance through his mind. The drop to the planet, the gunfire, the bodies falling. Then there had been the part he had hated: the set dressing. Hacking up bodies to make it look like someone else’s work was not the kind of thing mercenaries did, in his opinion, but he had done it…

  ‘Thank you,’ Thea said. ‘That’s everything.’ She turned and looked at Cassandra, standing at the entrance of the infirmary. Cassandra gave her a nod. ‘If you’ll go with Cassandra, she’ll see to it that you get where you need to be.’

  ‘Right,’ the merc said, climbing off the medical couch and testing his weight on his previously injured leg. ‘The station, if you don’t mind. I’ll get a ship out of here as soon as I can.’

  ‘Probably wise,’ Cassandra said. ‘Come this way.’

  Thea watched them leave and then set off in the same direction. She needed to go apologise to Geogracus for making him heal a dead man.

  Part Three: A Sister in Need

  Monteagle’s Prize, Hyperspace, 60/1/483 BCC.

  Kaya opened her eyes and saw nothing. She was blind. She was… Her confused mind began to take in the input from her senses and she came to an alternative conclusion, though it was on minimal information.

  She was seeing nothing but black, because she was fixed into some sort of helmet with no visor. She could hear nothing but a soft, broadband hiss: white noise was being played into her ears through headphones. Her nose was covered and there was a thick gag in her mouth, but she could breathe fine, except that the helmet seemed to be fixed tightly around her throat which made things a little more difficult. There were cuffs fixed around her wrists and, from the way they pulled when she lifted her arms, the cuffs were attached to her collar by a moderately short leash. And, again from the feel of it, someone had stripped her down to her underwear, and she was lying on a mattress which had all the give of a plank.

  Someone had put her in sensory-deprivation restraints. She had only ever seen the things in old vids, not that there had been many new vids on Sadrine’s Drift. She remembered seeing them used to control some evil, mind-controlling psi in a spy thriller which had seemed about as realistic as most such vids. She had to admit that it would be effective: if she could not sense anyone around her, then she could not use any of her abilities on them. And if she had actually had a psi ability which was capable of doing anything very useful, the restraints might have had a purpose. Maybe whoever had her did not know the extent of her powers. Maybe…

  A thought, a memory, tickled at the edge of her consciousness: where was Jay? Jay had been with her on the roof, watching the mercenary base. Then… Then what? What had happened? How had she ended up here, wherever here was, and where was Jay? She slapped down the thought that he had been killed as fast as it came up. There was no way she would have forgotten that and she refused to believe it. Whoever had captured her had not killed her, so why would they kill Jay? No, he was alive, had to be, and he would come for her. Or Thea and Jinny would come for them both.

  With nothing to do but lie there in the dark, Kaya focused on imagining her white knight riding in to rescue her, and not on his body lying dead on a rooftop.

  ~~~

  DEAD.

  The word flashed through her mind in bold, white capitals. What?

  ‘Can you hear me, Kaya?’

  Jay? Jay! Yes, she could hear him, but she could say nothing back given there was a gag in her mouth.

  ‘If you can hear me, Kaya… I guess you can’t do much about it.’ Jay’s voice was distant; he sounded weird, like he was a long way off and drifting in and out.

  DEAD.

  ‘Don’t worry, Kaya. There’s nothing to worry about now. Not now. Not now we’re…’

  DEAD.

  ‘I don’t know if you remember. The rooftop. The gunship. I tried…’

  DEAD.

  ‘…I could do and… I guess we’re together now. Forever. I was never much of a believer, but here we are.’

  DEAD.

  No, she could not be dead. Death was passage to the Universal Mind and the loss of unique identity, and it would not come with cuffs and a gag. There was no way she was–

  DEAD.

  ‘You’re fighting it. Don’t fight it. It’s easier if you just let yourself go. Join with the Mind.’

  MIND.

  DEAD.

  ‘Just… let… go.’

  DEAD.

  MIND.

  And then there was nothing but the darkness and the soft shush of white noise.

  ~~~

  DEAD.

  How long there had been before the thought flashed through her head again, Kaya was not sure, but it was back.

  JAY.

  What about–

  DEAD.

  JAY.

  DEAD.

  JAY.

  ‘Why did you let them kill me, Kaya?’

  DEAD.

  ‘Why?’

  JAY.

  ‘You let me die.’

  DEAD.

  ‘Why?’

  JAY.

  They were not her thoughts. Kaya closed her eyes in the dark, and the block-capital mental images vanished, leaving only Jay’s voice.

  ‘You go on living while I’m dead? Is that all you thought of me?’

  But he had said she was dead earlier. And was that just a hint of… of smug humour in his voice?

  ‘Look at me when I’m talking to you!’

  Her eyes snapped open and…

  JAY.

  DEAD.

  JAY.

  Subliminal messages. That was another thing she’d heard of from vids. She had even done an experiment with reading words flashed up on a screen for a fraction of a second in school. She had been good at it.

  DEAD.

  Now she realised what was going on, the images flashing in front of her eyes became more obvious and she could ignore them. It was irritating, and she did not understand what was happening, but whatever it was, there was no truth to it. Kaya closed her eyes again.

  ‘Kaya!’ Berating. ‘Kaya?’ Annoyed.

  Silence.

  ~~~

  There were a few other attempts, but Kaya was wise to it now. Whoever was imitating Jay’s voice, they did not know him as well as they thought, and they did not realise that Kaya was a perceptive girl. There were little hints, but the big thing was that Jay would not have been doing this to her.

  Eventually, they gave up with the subliminals, but they were not finished with whatever they were up to because that was when they started with the sounds.

  With nothing to see or listen to, Kaya began to drift toward sleep… And that was when the soft noise in her headphones turned to a sharp, shrill scream, jerking her awake and then vanishin
g as soon as it had come.

  The first time was annoying, the second worse, and after that it just became tiring and she knew what they were up to. Sleep deprivation was another one of those things the vid villains did to break the hero. Kaya was no hero. What did they hope to get out of this?

  What was going on?!

  ~~~

  The room she was in was small and generally pretty bare. In an effort to keep the screech from ringing in her ears, Kaya had decided to explore as best she could. So she had struggled into a sitting position, which was not easy with your hands tethered in front of you, and put her feet on the floor.

  First impressions: cold and metal. So, a ship. If it had been concrete, that would likely indicate a building. A carpet could have gone either way. She was on a ship and… and that was bad. She could be anywhere and she had no way of knowing whether anyone could find her.

  Shuffling carefully around the floor revealed that the room was not large, barely bigger than the bunk she had been lying on. There was, however, a door with no way of opening it, a small, metal sink and a toilet, also metal with a plastic seat. She was going to need to use that at some point, but she had no way of pulling her panties down, or cleaning up after. Her jailors would think of it sometime, hopefully.

  Jailors. Yes, the layout suggested a cell. She was in a cell, on a spaceship. And she had a bruise on her left shin from bumping into the toilet bowl. Little details seemed so important when you had one viable sense available to you.

  Kaya sat down on the edge of the bunk, once she had found it again without adding another bruise, and did her best to not fall asleep.

  1/2/483.

  Kaya jerked awake, which was not a good idea given her tethered condition. Her muscles ached and she still felt tired, but they had let her sleep after… Well, she had no way of knowing how long she had been forced to wake up every time her eyes had drifted shut. The screaming tone had got longer and longer as the day had worn on and her body began to refuse to accept that it was not allowed to rest. Fatigue had set in solidly and no matter how hard she tried, she had begun drifting off to be dragged awake again. Until she had not been dragged awake again.

  She had no idea why they had finally decided to let her sleep. It made as much sense as forcing her to stay awake. She had no idea how long she had slept either. She had no idea what day it was, or where she was, or what was going on…

  The light, when it came, was almost blinding after so long in the dark. Kaya jammed her eyes shut and then tried looking again, turning her head away as best she could from what had to be overhead lights. Her vision shifted from all white, to blurred images of something she could not really identify, to… legs. Legs in dark slacks and they were in the doorway to her cell. She swung herself upright and lifted her eyes and… and…

  ‘I’d imagine you’re a little shocked.’ The words were just slightly out of sync with Jay’s lips, as though what he was saying was running through a processor of some sort before being sent to her headphones. ‘You’re wondering where you are, what’s happening. You don’t remember what happened on the roof back on Teladish. You weren’t sure whether I was alive or dead. I realise you can’t speak and I’m not going to do anything about that because, frankly, I’m fed up of hearing you.’

  Something dropped in the pit of Kaya’s stomach and she suspected it was her heart.

  ‘Let me fill you in a little. I drugged you and took you to Garaka Monteagle’s shuttle and then to his cruiser. That’s where we are now. I said I’d take you to Giltanish, and I’m a man of my word. There’s even a house on a beach. I don’t suppose you were expecting the shackles and helmet, of course, but I never said how you’d be getting there, did I? Oh, you can’t answer. Sweet silence. I must say you look… vulnerable.’

  His smile sent a cold chill down Kaya’s spine. She lifted her arms to cover her chest as best she could and crossed her legs.

  ‘Oh, now there’s no need for that. Very little point as well. We have another eight days in hyperspace. I plan to come down here as often as I can to teach you a few things I didn’t get around to in your cabin. I’d really have liked to have taught you to give head, but we can’t take that helmet off you safely until we get to Giltanish. It does more than keep you isolated. It generates a null field. I’m wearing one too, just so you don’t feel lonely. That means Cassandra can’t find either of us, even if she jumps to hyperspace.’ He pursed his lips thoughtfully. ‘Actually, the generators have a small area of effect so maybe we could teach you… But no. Even tired as you are, I can see the anger in your eyes and you still have teeth in your head. I’ll have to make do with your other–’

  Jay stopped abruptly, turning his head slightly as though he was listening. Whatever he was listening to, it was not being transmitted to Kaya’s headphones. His brow furrowed. Annoyance? Yes, annoyance. Something had annoyed him. His attention turned back to Kaya, glaring.

  ‘Don’t expect to be rescued. Monteagle’s men set a trap for Thea and Jinny. They refused to surrender. Cassandra probably has better things to do than come looking for you, but even if she decides to, she has no way of knowing where we are going and, as I mentioned, she can’t track you. I’ll see you later.’

  Even as he started to turn in the doorway, Kaya’s vision was blocked off and the white noise began playing in her ears. She fell back onto the bed and closed her eyes, not that it made much difference. Her heart was hammering in her chest and, yes, she was angry. Jay had betrayed her, and not just her. He claimed, or had suggested, that Thea and Jinny were dead, but Kaya could not believe that. Of course, she had not even considered the idea that Jay would betray her either. Anger faded and fear began to creep in, and Kaya bit down on it hard. Angry was better. She held on to the hot flame of anger and tried hard to imagine all the things she would do to Jay when she got out of this.

  ~~~

  ‘What the diyou do you think you’re doing?’ Garaka Monteagle growled. He had called Jay out of the cell, which Jay had been annoyed about, but the merc looked fairly annoyed himself.

  ‘Making a more amenable prisoner,’ Jay replied as calmly as he could manage. Smoothing feathers was one of his skills. Actually, manipulating people was the basis of many of his skills, but smoothing ruffled plumage fell into that category.

  ‘Using sleep deprivation, threatened rape… No, you were going to go through with it, weren’t you? Don’t bother denying it. She’s a psi, you idiot. Her abilities are mental. If you screw up her head, she could be no use to the buyer.’

  Jay bit back on his first thought: that he had been planning on screwing other parts of her anatomy. Monteagle did not look like his sense of humour was functioning just now. He had a fairly basic one when he was happy and now was not the time to test it.

  Monteagle used the pause to get in before Jay could reply. ‘I know why your family kicked you out, don’t forget that. Leave the girl alone. She’ll be damaged enough by the time we get her in front of your contacts. They will be interested, won’t they?’

  ‘Trust me, they’ll want her and they’ll pay well for her.’

  ‘Good, because so far you’ve cost me a lot of money and all I’ve got is a girl in her underwear and a prick with no sense. Get out of here before I put a guard on your cabin.’

  Jay felt his anger spiking, but he clamped down on it. It was Monteagle’s ship. He might not have a full complement of troops on it, but he had the backing of the entire crew and there were a lot more of them than there were of Jay. Anyway, Jay was in this for the long game and Monteagle was right, in a way. Delayed gratification should be the name of the game here.

  Oracle of Zanar, Giltanish System.

  Thea looked up at the screen mounted in the lounge Jinny and Fay shared between their cabins. It was on the port side of the ship; on the starboard side were the cabins Kaya and Jay had been occupying. Kaya’s remained untouched for now. Jay’s had been emptied of the few things he had left behind.

  The screen was showing th
e magnified, but still distant, orb that was Giltanish Prime. They were still hours away from orbital insertion, but Thea had decided on a planning meeting before they arrived. There was a lot of blue up there on the screen: the planet had eighty percent water coverage and a lot of privately leased islands, leased because the entire world, like Teladish, was owned and run by the Ishara Complex. There were, however, significant differences between the two worlds. Primarily, Teladish was a hole and Giltanish was a paradise. Ishara had developed Giltanish as a resort world, and the clear skies and blue oceans gave that away nicely. It was like something off a tourist brochure.

  ‘Of course,’ Cassandra said, ‘it has a reputation for looking the other way when it comes to activities BCU Security would consider criminal, as would most planetary governments. Stories circulate but no one has proof, which they are willing to provide anyway, and so long as the people involved keep their activities to their private enclaves, they are ignored by Ishara’s police.’

  ‘I have heard stories of hunts carried out on this planet,’ Fay said. ‘Hunts with humans as the prey. Even hunts with filarax as the prey.’

  ‘I don’t think that’s what they’re bringing Kaya here for,’ Thea said. ‘Equally, I don’t think they’ve brought her here simply because Monteagle has a safe place to stash her. The Bowrains lease an island here, don’t they?’

  ‘Yes,’ Cassandra replied. ‘You believe Colder and Monteagle plan to sell Kaya to the Bowrains?’

  ‘It’s a possibility. It’s one of the few possibilities I can come up with right now. Jay knows she’s a zanari, and he likely knows the Bowrains would be interested. I can’t quite see how he’d think she was worth enough to them to justify all this trouble. Monteagle must know that he’s heavily out of pocket after what we did to his HQ.’

  ‘It was… beautiful,’ Jinny said with a sigh.

  ‘For once, I have to agree.’ Thea flashed Jinny a grin. ‘I admit, my joy in the explosion was highly circumstantial, but it was very satisfying. However, I want Kaya back.’

  ‘We all do, Thea,’ Sienna said. She had come down from her cabin on the top deck for the discussion, and she generally had zero input to give on tactics.