His voice is a muffled, barely audible noise as he swears. Crezlith bangs on the glass. “Are you?”
I’m not sure what’s got him in such knots. But I have a guess. Only a female can make a male lose his mind in such a manner, regarding mating. He looks like he is falling apart. I have never felt as alive as I have with her. But she has done something to upset him, not just piss him off.
“What have you done with the female?” I ask.
He walks up to the cage. “What are you going to do about it? Are you going to break out?” he snarls. “Last time didn’t go so well, did it? You know we have anti-Titan weapons in here, like all the cruisers. Doesn’t matter if it’s a battle cruiser, emissary, or otherwise. We are always just one twitch away from taking you down.”
I get up and stand before the glass, looking down at him. He’s trying very hard to scare me into submission, when he should know by now that doesn’t work on us. “What did you do to the female?”
Crezlith hisses at me, bearing his teeth. “She’s inmycage,machine.”
“I was once human. Your kind took my life, my family, my everything. I am this way because of you and because humans didn’t give up on me. If you weren’t such assholes, they would probably help you, too. But I’m certain you’re beyond hope.”
Crezlith stills. He visually dissects me and then calls out to Hetnick. “I thought you dosed him.”
“I did.” Hetnick leans into the prison chamber. “It’s taking longer than usual. New programming.”
Crezlith looks me over with disgust. “How can you be what humans love and not us?”
“Because you betrayed their trust. You lied. You enslaved them. Isolated them on Earth Minor. Because you force them to be practice mates. You abuse them. Starve them. And you kill the ones they love.”
“You speak of them like they are not your kind,” he replies.
“They are not my kind.”Anymore.
“Then why not come to the table with Solcrue. We have superior technology,” Crezlith says with an exasperated shrug.
“You lack the comprehension of the strongest power in the whole universe. Humans will always be stronger until you learn to think as they do.”
“What’s that?” Crezlith asks.
I tilt my head and look down at him, wishing I could break out of this cell and snap his little green neck. “That’s for you to figure out. It’s not a power that can be taken or bought. It can only be given with free will. You cannot manipulate its true form into existence.”
“And you know what it is?” Crezlith acidly asks.
“I do. Aera showed it to me. It is real.”
“Then she has lied.”
“Aera does not lie. You just can’t see it. Like you can’t smell its presence on her.” A primal urge stirs in me, and a growl slips out. “But I can.”
“It’s in her blood.”
“All of her. If you destroy her, you destroy it.”
Crezlith runs a hand through his hair. “Aera is the strongest force in the universe? That doesn’t make sense.”
She is to us. To me. She is the center of my universe. But he doesn’t need to know that.
“What have you done to her?” I ask again.
“She is the source power for the human’s weapons system,” he mutters.
“Crezlith...” I’m growing desperate and rest a hand on the glass between us. “What have you done withAera?”
A sly grin warps his face. “It’s not what I have, but what I will. Just sit back and let the meds kick in, metal head. See you soon.”
Crezlith turns and walks off to join Hetnick and the others in the security officer’s break room, shouting something about getting a hold of Joey of CSP.
