"And the apex predator threat?" Voss asks.
"I call it Stompy. Which is what I named it after it tried to flatten us by smashing through a canyon wall. Six metres, armoured scales, and ApexCorp's drones herded it directly toward our position as a retrieval tactic."
Vyrath interjects. "There is no evidence ApexCorp deliberately—"
"Bebo, drone flight patterns from the morning of Day Nine."
The display shows three drone trajectories, annotated by Bebo, clearly and systematically driving the Rexor toward the canyon system. Toward us.
"I stand corrected," Bebo says mildly. "There is evidence."
Vyrath's composure holds, but something tightens behind the immaculate presentation.
Then Krilly stands.
Not required. Not prompted. She pushes back her chair, rises to her full five feet and two inches, and faces the panel with the claiming mark visible above her collar and her shoulders squared.
Her fear is real and present and sitting right next to a determination so fierce it burns. I feel both in my chest.
"I will stake my courier licence and my future on Horgox Ka'reen's character."
My markings flare. The shock, the pride, the fear for her.
"If he's deemed a flight risk and he runs, I lose everything. But he won't. He stayed in a murder jungle to protect me when he could have vanished. He taught me to survive. He let me take apart the technology used to torture him and trusted me not to make it worse."
Her voice goes fiercer. "And if you're asking whether I'd free those specimens again, bond with this male again? Yes. Every time. Because those were people, not inventory. Because he is a person, not a product designation. And because the Sentient Rights Accords exist precisely for situations where a corporation decides that conscience is a defect."
Vyrath has been waiting. Patient, strategic, saving the attack for the moment that matters most.
"Courier Baxter." The Corsairian's voice is pitched to sound reasonable. "You mentioned a bond. A permanent neurological pair-bond initiated during your time on the planet."
"Yes." Krilly's chin lifts.
"Can you explain the biological mechanism?"
"Varkaani horn-touch bonding. Physical contact with the horns during intimacy activates neural pathways that permanently sync two nervous systems."
"Permanently." Vyrath lets the word land. "A permanent neurological alteration, performed on a jungle planet, without medical oversight, without informed consent documentation,and without any independent verification that the bonding mechanism doesn't function as a form of biological coercion."
The room shifts. Krilly's spike of alarm as she recognises the trap.
Vyrath is not attacking the escape. Not attacking the facility raid. Attacking the bond.
"Varkaani biology includes several mechanisms classified as neurological override capabilities," Vyrath continues, addressing the panel. "The bonding response is one of them. Once initiated, it permanently alters the partner's nervous system, creating dependency, proximity needs, and emotional enmeshment that cannot be reversed. Courier Baxter was alone, vulnerable, dependent on Mr. Ka'reen for survival. And during that period of maximum vulnerability, a permanent, irreversible neurological alteration was performed on her by an individual whose species is documented as having biological coercion capabilities."
My blood goes cold.
They're framing me as a predator. The bond as a weapon. Everything we chose, rewritten as biological manipulation.
Krilly's reaction is not fear. It's fury. White-hot, incandescent, the specific rage of someone watching her best choice turned into evidence of her victimhood.
"Counsel Vyrath, this is a serious allegation," Voss says. "Do you have biological evidence to support it?"
"Varkaani bonding biology is well-documented in xenobiological literature. The mechanism functions through neurological override of—"
"Bebo." Krilly's voice cuts through. Clear, calm, lethal. "Varkaani bonding biology. The consent requirement. Specifically."
"Varkaani pair-bonding requires authentic mutual desire from both parties," Bebo responds immediately. "The bondingmechanism is biologically incapable of functioning under coercion. The neural pathways that activate during horn-touch bonding are linked to the same limbic centres that govern voluntary pair-selection. In the absence of genuine mutual desire, the pathways do not fire. The bond does not form." A pause. "This is not my editorial opinion. This is documented Varkaani xenobiology, available in seventeen peer-reviewed publications, which I have archived and can provide to the panel."
