“Come closer, I won’t bite,” he says in fluent English.
I step closer, and he activates a small device that makes the air shimmer around us. "It’s an audio dampener. We have perhaps fifteen minutes to talk. I’m?—“
"Gael,” I say, recognizing him through my research. “I thought they’d caught you."
"They caught a decoy. Huck, he’s wearing a sophisticated biological holo to look like me.”
“What will happen to him?” I ask. Huck has been the face of Terra Ka for me and it unsettles me that he’s been so casually thrown to the enemy.
Gael’s jaw tightens, and he deflects. “Huck has bought us time. The Sovereigns think they’ve caught their man. And Huck won’t break under their interrogation.”
For a moment, Gael’s composure slips. Not grief exactly—something worse, like he’s already moved Huck into a category labeled ‘died for the cause’ and sealed it shut in his mind.
“People like Huck know what they’re risking and are willing to die for the cause.”
He leaves off saying, ‘Die for me.’ As if he doesn’t want to admit that without him Terra Ka may not be as powerful.
“You don’t sound convinced in Huck’s sacrifice,” I say, boldly.
“Conviction is a luxury we don’t have, Eve. If Terra Ka wanted martyrs, we’d be a thriving religion, but what we want, and need, are results. Humans freed at any cost, but even better if we can free them from the most high-profile, high-security events, like the Grand Championships. Huck understands that. He just needs to hold on in that cell long enough for Terra Ka to complete its goal.”
The way he sayshold—like it’s a skill, not a virtue—settles unpleasantly in my gut.
“And you're the woman who's been feeding us invaluable intelligence while sharing the Sovereigns' bed. Quite a complicated situation.”
Heat floods my cheeks, but I don't deny it. I know the sex part has even made the news on Reima Two, and not in a good way.
“Before we talk about anything else, I need to know about your wife, Lara," I say. "Rafe showed me footage of her being sold at a slave auction. He said you let it happen."
Pain flicks across his face for an instant. "He showed you truth wrapped in lies. Lara was taken from Earth as a child and raised in captivity. When I found her at the Goddess of Fertility Temple, I had a proposition for her to go undercover and retrieve something of great value for Terra Ka, and she accepted. She didn’t want to return to Gala Station to be sold, but she did it for me and the greater good."
"So she agreed to that?”
"Yes, she agreed. She did it to maintain her cover while she stole something we needed. A teleportation device that helped us move a hundred humans to safety and will help us on the last day of the Championships now. But I suppose Rafe didn't mention that part although it’s common knowledge.”
"So she chose to?—"
"She chose to risk everything for strangers. Yes, just like you're doing now. Though I suspect your motivations are more complex."
"What do you mean? The Sovereigns aren’t going to sell me at a slave market,” I say, but even I can hear the doubt in my voice.
"No one can predict what the Sovereigns will do, but I was referring to your feelings, actually. That despite everything, despite what they represent, you still really love them." He holds up his hand for me to be silent. “Everyone across the galaxy can see it between the three of you. There’s no reason to deny it or try to explain it. Love is a madness. No one can help who they fall in love with, even if it is the enemy.”
Denying it seems pointless. "Yes."
"Good."
I stare at him. "Good?"
"Love makes us human, even inappropriate love." He pulls out a small device, checking readings. Then, he exhales slowly, like someone deciding whether to hand me a weapon or a confession. "My mother was a human pet, and my father is Kamos; not many people know that, but it’s not a secret either. I exist because a human woman found something worth caring about in a monster. The galaxy isn't clean, Eve. It’s so messy, with pain and blood, and nothing about intelligent life is really intelligent or simple at all. But, on the other side of all that terribleness, there’s also a pure and loving side, which is, I guess, what we’re all chasing, hoping we will experience, even briefly to break the cycles of pain.”
I close my eyes. What he’s said has struck a chord, but I must stay focused. “I was told Denise was sold to Kamos.”
"You're worried about her fate. Wondering if that's your future too?"
"It’s more than that. I knew Denise on Earth. She trained me at a hotel owned by the Sovereigns.”
"You don’t need to worry; she's happy." He says simply, "Kamos adores her. She has luxury, protection, and purpose. When we offered her extraction last year, she adamantly refused."
