Her actions could well be considered treason under Decree number 1095.3, subsection 1, destined to preserve the purity of Frateran castes. She and some others had undergone physical alterations to make them indistinguishable from humans, but most of them belonged to the upper strata of intellectual and political castes. They wouldn’t have gained anything in their home countries by changing their genes or their appearances. Still, the law was the law, and genetic experimentation was forbidden outside authorized genetic labs.
Now that she faced the possibility of trial, she didn’t care about being branded a traitor. Fratera deserved a second chance. Humans would benefit from a symbiotic relationship too: they could learn and advance their technology by looking at Frateran tech.
“Start dictating, Missy,” Cadern said, “or we’ll have to report this to the general.”
She needed to tell her people directly, not go through intermediaries who would manipulate her words to their benefit.
“Tell your boss to come and ask whatever he wants to know,” she told them flatly. “I’m not going to let three idiots question me.”
Cadern’s jaw tensed, just like she’d expected. “If you won’t speak to us,” he said, “General Dovrik will have to resort to other means. He dislikes insubordination.”
“Technically,” she said, “insubordination requires me to be below him in the chain of command. The last time I checked, Fratera wasn’t a military dictatorship and the general remained a general. Has everything changed so much since I left?”
She’d expected Cadern to lose his patience with her and either tell her something useful or to take her before someone more powerful. Instead, he remained impassible.
Perhaps she’d misjudged him.
Geor laughed loudly and dumbly. “Girl with guts,” he said.
Cadern glared at him.
“What?” Geor said. “She’s brave. Needs taming, but she’s very brave.”
“He won’t be as friendly as us,” Cadern told her flatly. He glared at his minions and they headed out of the sliding door.
“Fine,” she shouted after them. “I was about to ask you guys to lock me up again. It’s cozy enough, and I’d rather be here than anywhere else. Bring me a couple extra pillows, and you’ll have to drag me out if you ever decide to let me go.”
They didn’t even look back at her. They simply shut the door once more. She was without options and without ideas until a higher-up summoned her.
Was she acting too brave for her own good? She didn’t want to go through any dangerous interrogation procedures.
Chapter 13: Kate
The following morning, Kate was escorted to another room using an intra-ship cabin.
The cabin stopped before a large and luxurious room with expensive divans. She walked out and ran her hands along the intricate textures and rare decorations on the walls. Several bowls of fruit on the shelves contained most Frateran varieties, even the fruit of the golden flower. Each plant produced only three fruits per year and required constant nurturing.
The rest of the room had the same kind of rare and expensive decorations. Whoever had taken her there wanted to impress her, but nobody ever invested so much to make someone unimportant feel comfortable. The general in charge of the ship was after something.
A low fence separated the room from a fighting ring made of black sand. Kate had seen that kind of ring before in history books: Fraterans used them for animal fights and for displays of bravery. Men and women alike had used rings of black sand to showcase their talents in battle, and to lure potential partners. It had once been a pastime for the bored upper classes, but it had fallen out of fashion.
Years earlier, a madman had won a battle and forced his defeated enemies to fight each other in the Black Sand Trials, a brutal method to eliminate a large portion of the population. The public had denounced those actions by rejecting black sand.
They’d brought her there to intimidate her. At least she was on the right side of the fence, the one with the chairs and luxuries. She walked over to some of the sweet Frateran fruits and picked a few. If she was to die there, she’d die with a full stomach.
The general didn’t make her wait for long. A large man, broad-shouldered and with smaller eyes than the average Frateran, entered the room and stared at her. He had a classic military build and large muscles, but his head was average-sized unlike most of the military kind’s, who preferred to reduce the chances of being hit on the head.
She’d seen the man before, although never personally. General Dovrik’s face was impossible to miss. He had a scar under his right eye that crossed his nose and reached his other eye, a scar that he’d made voluntarily in a moment of madness.
General Dovrik had served under the traitor who had made his captives fight each other to the death. A jury had deemed the general not guilty because he’d simply followed orders, but a constant shadow of suspicion had loomed over the man. Choosing a black sand ring for a peaceful conversation didn’t make him look innocent.
He touched the top of his forehead with his middle finger and then tapped on his navel with the same finger. He smiled at her and tried to act civilized. Kate had watched the general’s videos, and he wasn’t the kind of man to smile at anyone.
“That’s a rather official and respectful greeting for a prisoner,” she said sarcastically in her own tongue. “I’d greet you back, but my muscles aren’t used to so much protocol.”
He didn’t lose his patience. Instead, he smiled and said, “Your vowels sound awful. I wouldn’t speak the language if I were you. Hurts my ears.” He pressed something in his ear to activate the translation in his brain. Men of his rank didn’t generally resort to translation tricks, but using an interpreter reduced the privacy of meetings. “Better if I speak your tongue.”
“Why am I here?” Kate asked.
He ignored her question and gestured at the food by the walls. “Have my men fed you? Do you want anything else? Would you like me to order some cooked food? You cook food on Earth, don’t you?”
“I’m fine,” she said flatly.
“Are you sure?” he asked with a smooth voice that sounded forced. “I can get you almost anything you can think of. One of the advantages of being in charge of the ship.”
“Your head on a golden tray?” she said.
He let out a low gurgling sound, a Frateran upper-class equivalent to laughing. He lay down on one of the divans and gestured at another one, inviting her. Kate didn’t lay down; she sat down beside him, keeping her body ready in case she had to stand up and run. She didn’t know where to go, and the doors were likely to be locked, but at least he wouldn’t catch her off-guard.
“What do you want?” she said.
“What do we all want?” General Dovrik replied. “Money, power, prestige, wealth, satisfaction. Survival.”
She rolled her eyes. “Let’s save ourselves the diplomatic dance. You’ve boarded a human ship and abducted me. I’m not dead, so you want something from me. Tell me and you can keep your fruits while I save my precious time.”
“Direct and blunt.” The general gave her a lazy smile. “I could’ve expected this of others, but not of the daughter of two geneticists.”
“They were geneticists,” Kate said. “They had a few tricks up their sleeves to choose their children’s personalities.”
“I see,” he said. “Pity that you look so…” He paused and gestured at her body. “Human. I’d have pressed for an arranged marriage if you hadn’t been an abomination.”
“I’ll take it as a compliment,” Kate replied.
General Dovrik let out a loud laugh and held his stomach with both hands. “I’m surprised that you act civilized.”
Kate wasn’t being flattering or diplomatic for the sake of it; she was extending the conversation to get information. The longer she spent outside her cell, the more chances she had to learn something useful about the ship to escape alive.
She shrugged. “I guess I received a good ed
ucation.”
“Your friends haven’t been as diplomatic as you.” The general stared into her eyes to see her reaction.
Kate’s stomach contracted. She’d expected others to end up aboard the ship, but she’d hoped to go first in the interrogations.
“Your time amongst humans has made you easy to read,” he said with a self-satisfied smile.
He went straight to the point: he’d rescued those from their race from the humans, and he’d brought them to his ship. He emphasized the word rescued because he claimed that humans had abducted them and forced them to work against their will. It was an excuse to rationalize his actions, but he didn’t care of what the refugee Fraterans thought.
The general didn’t consider the refugees real Fraterans, but he still considered them better than humans. His thoughts were based on the intrinsic superiority of all Frateran genes. If Frateran genes were so fantastic, why had they destroyed their own planet while humans still lived in theirs?
Kate let him speak about his grand plans of universal conquest, hoping that he’d say something useful. He didn’t. His plans involved the classics: cleaning their genome, conquering new planets, and making the universe a better place for everyone. It always sounds great, but the fine print includes eliminating certain species or inferior citizens, eliminating unwanted parasites, and letting military rulers guide everyone else.
“We’re both reasonable people,” the general concluded. “Why don’t you swear fealty to your people, help us conquer Earth, and I give you a province for you and your mutant companions?”
“Swear fealty to my people or to you?” Kate rolled her eyes. “Come on, you can make it more believable.”
The general shrugged. “As you wish.” He clapped his hands twice. “Let the show begin, then.”
Show? Kate had a bad feeling. Was she going to be forced into the black sand to fight for her life? She knew basic fighting skills, but she wasn’t ready to fight to death. She sat up and got ready for the worst.
“You won’t take part in today’s show,” the general said. “Sit back and enjoy.”
One of the other refugees walked out of a gate to the black sand ring. He was bruised and tired, with large bags under his eyes. His stay aboard the Frateran ship hadn’t been as pleasant as Kate’s.
“What does this mean?” she asked.
The general didn’t reply.
John walked out of another gate. He’d been equally mistreated, with cuts on his shoulder and a black eye. She couldn’t let him be there. It was all her fault.
He glanced at Kate and shook his head: he didn’t want her to do anything stupid.
“They weren’t too polite,” the general said. “And their parents were traitors.”
“What’s going on?” Kate demanded.
The general shrugged. “Everyone frowns at black sand fights, but that’s just for Fraterans. You’ve combined your genes to make them closer to humans. These two gentlemen are little more than animals.”
He had to be kidding. Nobody resorted to black sand even with their worst enemies. The general couldn’t be insane enough to embrace them.
“Join my ranks,” the general told her. “Join my ranks and swear fealty to me, and you can keep your little traitor friends alive.”
Kate stared at John. If she agreed to General Dovrik’s demands, he’d never forgive her for it. She didn’t want to let him die, but she wasn’t going to let the general blackmail her.
And he couldn’t be serious. If he started killing her people, he’d lose all leverage. Only a madman would kill hostages before negotiating.
“You’ll have to do better.” She stared at him with a firm expression. Her choice was final. He wasn’t going to bend her with black sand or sand of any color.
“No, Elietas,” General Dovrik replied. “You will.” He snapped his fingers in the air.
One of the gates by the ring opened again and three men brought a black three-headed quadrupedal dog-like animal with large fangs. This was worse than Cerberus; this was a genetic experiment. And it seemed deadly.
“My friend is hungry.” The general’s voice continued sounding polite and civilized, as if he were talking about tea and the weather instead of threatening two men’s lives. “And today I’ll get one of the following: an oath of loyalty from a traitor, a traitor’s death by another traitor, or two traitors’ deaths by my three-headed friend.”
The three-headed animal growled. Its heads stared at John and the other refugee with hunger. Kate wished that it was all a mind trick, but it didn’t seem like one. She could either agree to help the general annihilate humanity, or see John die.
Chapter 14: Kate
General Dovrik offered Kate one last chance to save the other refugees as long as she gave him the genetic alterations that her parents had implanted in her brain. He wanted to infiltrate Earth and conquer it from within before anyone even realized.
She wasn’t going to give anything to the general. He was a duplicitous and untrustworthy worm, and he’d find a way to betray her and eliminate all of them. He didn’t consider them his equals, and men like Dovrik have no reservations to eliminate inferior species.
Some servants armed John and the other refugee with swords. John was a man of science, a man of reason. Kate had never seen him wield a weapon or admire one, and yet he was there, on the black sand that had once marked their nation’s history, and about to butcher or to be butchered.
The general roared in laughter at the doctor’s hesitations and ordered the fight to begin. His three-headed pet encouraged both contestants to start the fight. Their moves remained slow and cautious at first, attempting to preserve the other man’s life.
“They’ll get the pace soon enough,” the general told Kate. “I’ll make sure of it.” He kept eating and exhibiting his wealth and power as if he really believed that someone would be impressed by it. He was nothing other than an idiot with too much free time.
The men on the black sand continued the fight. John swung his sword high in the air. His arm faltered and he almost didn’t bring the sword back down to block his opponent’s weapon. He panted and retreated several steps.
Kate sat up and tensed. She couldn’t run into the ring to stop the fight. She had to get the general to stop it himself.
“Are you putting on this show to seem powerful before me,” Kate said, “or are you just trying to convince yourself?”
The general ignored her question. “What if I promise that I’ll keep humans alive and well?” he said. “Not in their current numbers, of course, but once we’ve culled the extra population…”
“So you plan to wipe out half of humanity, move your cities there, and live happily and sing songs around campfires?”
“Not half,” the general said. “I’d leave about half a billion people alive. They multiply like rats. A rat can make a pet, but a rat nest is always a plague. And I’m not a good singer.” He shrugged. “Humans are similar to our own kind. We can set them simple jobs, and I’m sure that they’d manage.”
The two men’s fight became faster. Neither wanted to kill the other, but the three-headed dog encouraged them to keep trying. Even when they fought, some of the servants let the dog close to them whenever they weren’t aggressive enough. John ducked and dodged his opponent’s sword by inches, but he didn’t see the next blow coming. His opponent scratched his arm. A superficial wound.
Focus on the general, Kate told herself. She turned to him. She was going to negotiate safe passage out of those circumstances for both her and the surgeon. She had to outsmart the general. It’s never easy to outsmart a man who has devoted his life to strategy and military tactics.
“Some of your other friends were better fighters,” the general said. “These two are buying tickets to become dog snacks.”
“What do you want?” Kate said. “Conquer Earth and then what? Become supreme dictator of the universe? That’s dated.”
“I’ll be satisfied as long as our people have a
planet to live on,” General Dovrik said lazily. “I’m no different to you: I want the best for our kind. I’m just not eager to share our technology with inferior races. They should earn their right to technology by themselves. I’d have already executed you as a traitor if I didn’t consider the larger picture and the possibilities of your family’s genetic heresy.”
“So you’re leaving the execution until after you’re in charge.”
The general stood up and walked towards the fence that separated their room from the ring. He ran his hand along an invisible vertical wall: the room was secured; nobody could jump over the fence. A subtle message to encourage her participation in his scheming.
“Do you think someone would associate themselves with me if they considered me a traitor?” he asked. “If I break my word, what do I have left? Nothing. Nobody will ever negotiate with me without a back-up plan, and back-up plans tempt people to break their word.” The general’s face showed no indication of lying.
As if he hadn’t killed anyone on the black sand.
“And the black sand rings?” she said. “I guess you’ve arranged them for entertainment purposes.”
Kate walked beside him and faced the ring. She wanted to jump over the fence and help John, even if the three-headed dog got rid of both of them within seconds.
“These fights are a pressure tactic,” Dovrik said. “You’ve provided humans with faster-than-light travel, you’ve offered them advanced weapons, and you’ve given them everything they need to defend themselves from us. Thanks to you, they’ll soon build a fleet to face us. I’m forced to take action and defeat them before they do so.”
“So the fights are my fault,” she said sarcastically.
“You could say so,” he said, uninterested.
John was getting more and more tired every minute. His swings, parries, and footwork weren’t enough to face the other desperate man. They’d both ended up fighting each other to the death against their will, and they were both equally eager to leave the ring alive.
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