by Zoey Indiana
"I said may have been blown. There's a small chance I haven't, if that's the case then I need to go back for just a minute. Stay right here." She started towards the cave then stopped and looked back at him. "We can finish this discussion when I return."
Bash was tempted to follow her if only to watch her ass bounce as she walked. Her words came back to him, if her cover was blown, did that make her friend or foe?
Outside Lay'ata Base: Freya
Freya had to get away from Bash. All of her sense disappeared, and she was completely overwhelmed by his size. History books described men as generally taller than women, but by a few inches. He was well over a foot taller than her, not to mention the size of his biceps. Remembering what he'd felt like when she'd sat on him, heat pooled between her legs. It was such an odd feeling. Apprehensive, she wanted to release the tight control she kept on herself, and see what would happen. She'd have time later to figure it out. Leaving him here unprotected was a bad idea, but she had to keep her cover intact if possible.
She needed to check on O'Paka because she could be a valuable asset in the future, and she remembered seeing the naïve woman laying on the rocky ground with blood all over her. The odd feeling in her belly returned when she thought of O'Paka dying, but it was different than the one the man gave her. There was something wrong with her, she had all these weird feelings around other people.
Arriving at the tunnel entrance, she made her way back to the cavern. Several bodies were strewn about and the air was pungent with charred flesh and fresh blood. Death was everywhere, and she'd caused it. Seconds ticked by as she identified everyone on the squad except O'Paka and Sha'Rah. Following blood smears heading through the cavern, she tracked them back to the original tunnel until she found the two women in the cave opening. O'Paka paced around covered in blood, and tears streamed down her cheeks as she hugged herself. Sha'Rah sat a large rock trying to fashion a splint for her gnarled leg.
"You're both alive." A little tension her body suddenly released, but now wasn't time to analyze it.
Sha'Rah's gaze snapped to Freya. "Where the hell were you?" She stood on one leg and let out a curse, struggling to put weight on the clearly broken leg. She let out another string of curses and plopped back on to the rock. "While we were getting shot at, you and coward here were hiding in the tunnels, pathetic. I'll have you marshaled for your actions today."
Freya internalized her analysis of Sha'Rah's reaction of her appearance. Her thoughts broadcasted, making them hard to ignore. Then the last thing she expected to hear came through, Sha'Rah was an abandoned spy for the resistance. Hatred and venom in her mind forced Freya to put up a block so it didn't influence her. Right now, she had to remain in control and emotions were the last thing she needed. Before today, feeling other women's emotions through telepathy was the closest she got to feeling emotions.
"I saw some resistance members flee and tracked them until they stopped for a rest, it looks like they are tending to wounds." Freya looked over O'Paka. "I don't have long before I need to return, can't let them get too far."
"You lie! I read your file when they transferred to you. Yi'ara documented all your insubordination. You were transferred to this base because of it, and you can't be trusted." Sha'Rah shook her head in disappointment. "It's pathetic how you continue to lie when you've been caught." She tied the top of the splint just under her knee. "At least this pans here stuck around."
Freya felt the sting of Sha'Rah's insult of O'Paka that basically called her worse than a coward. Bully tactics worked well for those on top of the power triangle as long as those below didn't recognize how weak the bully was. Like Freya, someone stole O'Paka's choice and forced her into a life she had to survive. It was fight or die and no one cared if she died. Better to be alive and learn how to survive than die without meaning.
"I don't care if you believe me." She focused on listening to O'Paka's mind to see if she was okay. A quick scan of her thoughts revealed she was in deep emotional shock, but no physical injuries.
"I'll have your rank stripped for this!" Freya wasn't in the mood to listen to Sha'Rah's bullying tactics. She tried to stand again but forgot to tie the bottom of the splint near her ankle, and still didn't have any support for her injured leg. Even as a bully, she was a third-rate pretender. Freya made a mental note to read up on Sha'Rah's personnel file later.
"Somehow I doubt you have any sway with the base major."
The woman flailed her arms to catch her balance then bent over to finish tying the splint. Ripping another strip of cloth, she reinforced it. Straightening, she limped until she stood face to face with Freya.
"I'd be careful what you say, you might just find that you go to sleep one night and not wake up. I know women, women who supply the food replicators, women who launder your linens, and women who repair your equipment. Also, I know how to make every poison known to womankind and even some that I've discovered myself." Sha'Rah leaned in until her vile breath puffed into Freya's face as she finished her threat. "All it takes is a drop here or a drop there and you'd drop dead. Or you'll slowly and painfully wither away until your insides melt with no cure." Sha'Rah's hands mimicked sprinkling a liquid.
Her personnel file would make for an interesting read.
"Cut it out you two." They both looked over to O'Paka. She was standing with her arms wrapped around herself, her eyes were focused, and her color had returned. "I'm tired of listening to both of you bicker all the time. Over half of our squad just died! We have to get back to base. How do we get the bodies back? There are too many to carry."
Sha'Rah laughed. "She is adorable, bring the bodies back." She doubled over in fake laughter, when she stood up again her face was serious. "Leave them to rot, if they were worth my time they wouldn't have died."
O'Paka's color drained from her face again. "You can't just leave them here, they have families who will want to have a Mony for them."
"Then that is a problem for their family. I shouldn't have to clean up after their reproductive mistakes. They're all worthless and better off dead if they were such huge failures." Sha'Rah turned and limped back to the rock.
"When you return to base and report them as deceased, they will send out a crew to collect the bodies if it is on their personnel file. If they marked that they didn't care about their remains, the crew will leave them." Freya paused as she thought about it before she continued. "Though if they have to come out already, they may just take them all back and do a mass burial for them." She shrugged, her own file indicated she didn't want retrieval if she died during a mission. It wasn't worth the risk since she would be dead and didn't have a family. Turning to leave, a snide voice stopped her.
"Where do you think you're going?" Sha'Rah's sneer distorted a face others would consider beautiful.
"I have to track the surviving resistance members back to their camp. If I stay here much longer, I will lose their trail."
"Stop with the lies!" Sha'Rah shouted. "If you don't come back to base right now, I'll report you as a spy for the resistance, see if that doesn't get your rank stripped or worse."
Freya invaded her mind again, confirming she had some suspicion but no real evidence. She was grasping for something to hold over Freya.
"Isn't that funny? The rejected spy accusing me of being a spy. It is so funny I almost laughed." Sha'Rah's mind went into chaos as Freya listened to her reaction.
"What, me? I'm not a spy and you can't prove otherwise." Sha'Rah said out loud, but she mentally panicked about the possible discovery.
"You're right, I can't prove it, but I know it. It wouldn't take much to fabricate some proof to leave around for the base major to find." The last thing Freya needed was Sha'Rah reporting her as a spy for a power play.
"You don't have the guts to frame me for something I'm not." Sha'Rah's eyes flared.
Freya clicked her tongue. "Ah, but you are. I don't have physical proof, but I know."
"You lie!"
Freya decided now
was as good a time as any to reveal her telepathy, besides, with a small squeeze with her telekinesis, she could induce a heart attack, killing Sha'Rah.
Right here is all the proof I need. I can tell you exactly what you are thinking at any moment. Not only can I read your current thoughts, I can go deeper and pull out any information I want. Like the fact that when you refused to listen to… Katra, your Resistance contact, she had you cut off from their intel. Now you want to stick it to the Resistance for betraying you.
Sha'Rah went white and rigid.
Freya wanted to take some of the power away from Sha'Rah, so she added.
Just remember, next time you try to blackmail me into doing what you want, I own you.
"You, you're one of them!" Sha'Rah screeched and shielded her head with her hands, as if it would block telepathy. "They exterminated your kind years ago. Human experimentation stopped and they terminated all the subjects."
"It seems they missed one, doesn't it?" Freya knew for a fact that wasn't true. The experiments were still happening, but the Sovereign had sacrificed an underproductive division due to public outcry when the program was discovered by a few civilians. The government had terminated the entire division staff and all the substandard subjects but opened a replacement location. Subjects showing promise were removed and put into a top-secret compound for the experiments to continue. Freya knew because she had been one of those subjects.
If Sha'Rah revealed Freya's telepathy to anyone, they would shut down the entire base, eliminate anyone who knew, and then transfer her. Despite all the doubt there was about her allegiances, until they knew for sure, Freya was safe. How had the scientist phrased it? We've invested more resources in you than three of these facilities. Now that they only monitored her, the researcher kept tabs on her and would pull her back if she was discovered.
"But do you remember what they did to the scientists who revealed the experiments to the public?" The Sovereign had broadcasted the massacre to the public. They'd leaked information saying the scientists were performing experiments without the Sovereign's knowledge to shift the blame. An elite ARI team killed every single scientist, their family, and any friends they could find to make an example for the remaining scientists.
Some high-profile murders had been discreet, and they declared those women missing, while they viciously tortured the rest of the scientists and families. When it was over, their bodies were tossed into a pit, burned, and then covered in an unmarked grave. It was one of the worst moments in history.
"What would they do to you if you told anyone about me? Got anyone you care about?" Freya realized she shouldn't be so confident, Sha'Rah's mind screamed that she would report Freya as a spy the moment she returned to base. She could sacrifice her cover as long as she kept Bash alive. Protecting him would still be helping to thwart the Sovereign and support the Resistance.
Freya formulated a new plan as she walked back to Bash and away from ARI forever.
Chapter 3
Outside Lay'ata Base: Bash
Staying here was insanity, he should've left instead of waiting for Freya to return. She'd admitted she was going back to her team. His fears ran wild as he imagined Freya bringing ARI back to torture him until he revealed the camp's location.
That was it, he was out. Even though he'd never been outside of the camp before, he tried to trace the path back. He stood up and looked around but didn't see signs of ARI. Careful of the surroundings, he walked towards where he thought the camp should be and recognized the horrid smell. Holding back a gag, he walked closer. They'd come this way all right. At first, the smell horrified him to the point he thought there was a rotting corpse in the area. On their way to the cavern, a woman from his camp he couldn't name had informed him it was just the Rafflesia Flower, also known as the corpse flower.
With his recent freedom, he'd read a lot about botany in his infinite spare time. Reviewing every word he'd read about the flower in his mind, a fact popped into his mind. It was a parasitic flower that only preyed on a specific vine. Skirting around a tree, he saw the flower appear, and it captured his attention. Five large red flower petals entranced him.
"Bash!" His heart leapt into his throat. When he turned around his heart raced at the thought of Freya retuning, but sank the moment he recognized Lux standing a few feet away. "I was worried about you, so I came to find the patrol. What happened? I saw a bunch of bodies in the cave. Did they attack the ARI team? Oh never mind, we need to get you back to camp." Lux cut off her interrogation and grabbed his arm, pulling him away from the flower.
Something warred inside of him, every horrible thing that happened to him at the camp came to his mind. If they thought he was trying to escape, they would punish him when she took him back. If he went with Freya, he had no idea what would happen. Twisting his wrist, he tried to wrench it from her grasp, but her grip was stronger than he'd expected. Not wanting to incur her full wrath, he held his ground so she couldn't lead him off instead of fighting. Like with Deja, conflicts with Lux never ended well.
"Bash, come on. Now wasn't the time for this. Let's go back to the camp where it's safe, then we can talk about whatever you want."
"No, I will go back when I'm ready. I'm tired of everyone telling me what to do where to go. I am my own person, and I should be able to make my own decisions."
"We have to keep you safe for the greater good. Bash…" The way she cooed his name grated his nerves, "I know you don't like it, but it will be easier for you if you made the best of your situation instead of fighting it."
"Stop, just stop!" He didn't think pleading would get him anywhere, but he had to try. Because the last place he wanted to be was back at the camp. Deja would use this as a reason to lock him back in the red room again. Bile threatened to rise as he thought about it.
"Why do you hate me?" Tears welled up in her eyes as her voice choked. "You always do this to me. Every time I try to help you, you push me away. It's like you don't care about my feelings." She turned to walk away from him with heaving shoulders.
No, not this time, he refused to fall for her antics again. Heart wrenching sobs crushed his resolution and his heart clenched as she let out a loud sob. Dammit, he was such a sucker. He walked over to where Lux squatted near tree crying.
"I'm sorry Lux, I didn't mean to hurt you."
"But you did, you do it every time you don't get your way. I just don't understand it."
"Maybe it's because I'm a giant ass." Every time Lux got like this it was impossible to make her see reason. She always remained self-righteous while he defaulted to laying the blame on himself to clear the tension. It just made it easier. "Come on, let's go back to the camp."
"No, I don't want to go anywhere with you right now." Her protests made him want to tell her to stay, but he stopped himself. He held out his hand to her, and she smacked it away.
"Please Lux, I didn't mean it. I was just angry." He squatted down to her level, taking in her disheveled long blonde hair. Reaching up to soothe it, Lux turned her face, so it laid in the palm of his hand. He pulled back too quickly but spared himself from her wrath by reaching out for her hand instead. "Come on Lux, let's go home."
She grabbed it and stood, not letting go. "Hold my hand?" She made him cringe every time she made that request, but she was mad enough already.
"Sure."
They walked back to the camp while Lux chattered about stuff he ignored. Hoping to himself that De'Nara would see they could trust him with a little freedom, but deep down he knew nothing would change their minds.
Outside Lay'ata Base: Freya
Freya berated herself at her mistake. Sha'Rah was an issue, and while the telepathy had shocked her, she was smart. Much smarter than Freya had given her credit for. The only thing worse than a dumb enemy was an intelligent one. Sha'Rah would find a way to use the telepathy against her. On the other hand, O'Paka might be more useful than Freya had thought in the beginning.
Freya skirted around a tree, then hopped
over another to land in the clearing where she'd left Bash. A quick inspection of the area revealed he'd left. A boot print in the soft dirt caught her attention. Honing in on the trail, she focused on his tracks and followed them while scolding herself for leaving him alone. Nothing was more important in this moment than Bash. If he died... She analyzed the probability of several outcomes that could happen because of her stupid mistake. After several minutes she heard a woman's raised voice.
"I don't care what you want!" That didn't sound good. "The leaders deemed you invaluable to our society. You had your chance to make the right choice, and you didn't. Now you force me to take more drastic measures."
A familiar deep voice made her body come alive. "This is insane, put the blaster away."
"No, come back to camp now or I will shoot you. I have orders to retrieve you by any means necessary. Don't make me hurt you Bash!" The voice became more shrill. This was going too far. Even though it sounded like Bash knew the woman, she was threatening him and that wasn't okay.
Freya inched closer to the stand-off. If she could get a good line of sight, she could get the gun away from the woman. She wouldn't risk his safety by using her power alone if she could help it.
"I doubt the camp leaders would give you an order to shoot me. What do you think would happen if you killed me?"
"It would be nothing compared to what they'd do if you got away. Our entire society depends on you, besides, we don't need your leg to breed you."
Freya would have to agree with the last statement. Bash was integral to the Resistance. If humans could procreate naturally, then it would destroy the systemic control of the Sovereign. A single man could impregnate limitless women. Freya frowned at the thought. She didn't understand why but it made her feel… mad? Why did being around him make her feel things she didn't understand?
She inched to the left, and a clearing appeared between the foliage. A beautiful tall woman stood pointing a blaster at Bash. Her long blonde braided hair fell down her back. With a tight leather bodice and pants, her clothing was more functional than attractive. But it hugged curves Freya wished she had. She'd once asked the scientists why she was so much smaller than the other specimens. Their response had always been the more compact she was, the more useful she could be. They'd strapped her down to a table and injected her joints with serums. Every week she had begged and pleaded before they grabbed her, then screamed from the pain of the injections until she'd lost her voice and slipped into unconsciousness.