"We'll be at the ship in a parcel rotation. We didn't dock at the planet, so you wouldn't see us coming."
"Did you take any of my crew with you?" I worried about Belder, though I shouldn't. She was perfectly capable of regenerating if they harmed her. Most species believed we were dead when we simply went into hibernation to heal. Our heart beats were imperceptible, and we already ran cold with our scales deflecting heat. As long as they didn't dispose of her out an airlock, or damage her heart, she'd be fine, I assured myself.
I went to pace the room, but a soft hand clenched in my claw, halting my retreat. I stared at the beautiful treasure before me and cringed with agony at how blue blood was leaking from her lovely jewels. Blue covered her soft green skin, leaking from the cracks in her deep emeralds. A moan whispered from her lips.
To give her something else to think about instead of the pain, I began to tell her of my past, "I was raised on the outskirts of the city where I had to train, as my ancestors had, to survive among predators of beasts with no thought other than to consume and roam the deserts.
"By my own clan's standards, I was nothing more than an animal with no rights to join the clan and more respectable beings of the universe. My whole crew is made up of animals tasked with protecting the planet when those of higher respect curled their tails in distaste, but I was willing to sacrifice myself and everything I knew to secure a future for them."
I shook my head at the oddity of speaking to a female that could not hear me. And even then, I was lying to myself and to her.
With a sigh, I corrected myself, "To secure a future for Princess Klemon. She was the only one who came to the outskirts dressed in her lab cloak and saw the life we lived as our ancestors had before us.
"She was there to test a new nano technology on unsuspecting animals, but she didn't. She kept returning rotation after rotation, bringing comforts of the city with her until I decided to approach." I could feel my neck heat with the memory of embarrassment at how I had acted then. "I had fully intended on mating her as she was beautiful and kind. In those days, I didn't think that she would turn me down as I was the strongest of the outskirts, regularly providing leadership and food for the rejected ones. We did not realize we were rejected ones at the time. Without words, I was similar to what you would call a savage warlord of the desert."
Her eyelids fluttered and fingers squeezed my claw more forcefully as she groaned out, "Mine."
I smiled, not even thinking about if I appeared frightening. Perhaps she could hear me in her dreams, and it warmed me deep within my cartilage that she felt the connection between us as I did.
"Yes," I agreed. "Yours, My Treasure. She was not my mate, but she did teach me the common tongue so she could ask permission to install my implant. Funny, how a basic language understanding is necessary for the functionality of the technology in our minds, as the program must have a base-line language to associate with or communication is pointless even if it translates many languages across the universe.
"Even us talking now is all made possible by our implants communicating with each other. Princess Klemon taught me the civility of our clan and tasked me with joining the Galactic Authority. I took her experimental technology.
"All of us did," I added with a sadness, thinking about my crew… and Belder.
"What does it do?" she whispered, and it allowed my muscles to ease, knowing she was conscious. Though her eyes remained closed. The medpack was helping, and the spawnlings didn't have to heal us at all. This small act was comforting as I felt my eyes close from the numbness seeping through my muscles.
"It stops foreign DNA from attaching to our cells," I explained. "But it's untested against the threat it was created for. It seems to have been proven to stop the replication of foreign cells in our bodies. The nanobots have saved countless lives and improved countless others from disease and death. But against what we face… the Solusgor, we cannot know for certain until the threat reaches here from Solunus.
"That is why we are here. The side effects of the technology are unknown. It's only been used on the dying, and on my team. We must know that the threat is neutralized and that there aren't any adverse effects from prolonged exposure to the Ganpan-Fal in high doses. That is our mission."
Instead of fearing about what was to come, she said, "Solunus was destroyed…"
"No," I corrected her, "The planet still exists. It just doesn't belong to the Shol, or even the Galactic Authority, anymore."
Chapter eleven
Hazel
"Doyouthinkhe'sdead?" the youngest outlaw asked. When we were boarding, I saw he had the same kind of markings the shol trader had.
"Unlikely," the unGor who had helped me before replied, Genbi was his name. "From what the lizard said, Lord Zorn was alone when he attempted to handle business himself. Lord Zorn is never alone. It's likely he had the whole den at his disposal, and there were insurances in place should something not go according to plan. This is probably a lesson he has planned for you, Vareo."
Genbi helped me escape before, but from what I was hearing, I wasn't sure if he'd do the same for a second time. There was a kind of respect to his tone when he discussed Lord Zorn. If Lord Zorn is never alone, then someone would have recovered his body, and if they were loyal, then they'd be making efforts towards healing him. He may not be dead after all, I thought with a shiver that made my limbs ache.
"Like the incident back on Sumtraliaq?" Vareo cursed under his breath. I continued to lie strapped to the cot in the opened room next to them. There was no door to this room, only a curtain that swayed with the air vent below it. I had a feeling this wasn't always a room outfitted with bedding. The cushion between my body and the hard metal slab was thin, and the straps appeared more for cargo than for transporting a lifeform.
I stayed quiet to see what else they had to say when they believed we were both unconscious. Yueril was slumped half on the cot and half off, with his head resting on my stomach and his tail wrapped protectively around my leg. He stopped talking in the middle of a sentence, and I couldn't even feel his chest move with his inhale of breath. He was cold to the touch, and I would have thought he was dead, if it weren't for the way his tail periodically pulsed around my calf. The conversation echoed through the vent.
"I wouldn't doubt it," Genbi agreed.
"Sumtraliaq was a blood bath. He sent unprepared slaves with no warrior training to a planet with barely any land surface. They were eaten alive, and the ship was lost!" Vareo grew more agitated with every word. There was no love lost from him towards the Lord Zorn. That was my only comfort, that I might be able to trust them long enough to get back home.
"And what did he say to you after?" Genbi prompted.
"It was an investment in the future," he scoffed. "To have the ship send back information about the resources and species there, but also to monitor when the species is capable of using the ship to their own advantage to communicate with the galaxy. He sacrificed all of them."
"Now that planet is under Lord Zorn's jurisdiction. Anyone who trades goods to or from that planet has to pay their dues. It is Lord Zorn's right to do so after paying the fee in blood and lost goods."
