by Maia Starr
Harlaw looked as if he were about to protest, but apparently thought better of it and turned his back on us to return inside the dark craft.
“Come human,” the Verian said, almost apologetically. “There is much left to do.”
I followed Pyre nervously as he led me through a desolate, sandy plain, until, in the distance, I saw a small gray building. It looked frighteningly tiny, and Pyre paused just as he was about to push through the door.
“I want you to know that this isn’t personal for me,” he said, his handsome face shockingly serious. “I do not take pleasure in the needless abuse of prisoners. Harlaw will be punished for his offenses.”
I glared and looked away. What good did it do for Pyre to tell me this? He was probably just trying to find a way to make himself feel better for abducting an innocent human and subjecting her to who knew what kind of torture. Well, I would never forgive him. I would never forgive any of them. Not when it meant that Greandol would continue to suffer.
“This is it, human. Come on.”
I walked gravely beside the Verian, who placed his heavy hand on my shoulder. He guided me inside, gentle but firm, and when I saw what was inside my stomach dropped.
“My freg, commander! Get her over here. It’s been too long already.”
Pyre glared at the man who spoke but followed his instruction. He handed me off to him, and I wasn’t sure if it was my imagination or not but he seemed reluctant to let me go.
I grimaced as talon-like fingers squeezed my shoulder and pulled me forward. Soon, I was looking in the eyes of a severe Verian man with bushy eyebrows and a plump face. He looked tired and weak, as if he had been a victim of Earth’s disease for many years now. And if the way Pyre had been speaking was any indication, he seemed to think that I had something that he wanted.
“Get her cleansed!”
I was suddenly doused with freezing cold water, and I felt hands grabbing at my body, tearing the clothes off of me and draping a heavy gown over my exposed abdomen. Pyre averted his eyes, seemingly embarrassed for me, and then disappeared from the room.
“Wait,” I whispered, my voice choked with fear. But he didn’t hear me, and soon I was left alone in the small room full of chanting Verians, smudging sweet smelling smoke around my body and waving their arms in the air frantically.
It seemed like years before they were finished, and when they finally did complete their ritual, they locked me in a much bigger cell than the one I’d had been inside while in the ship. This one did have the luxury of a bed, but it was coarse and uncomfortable, and the blanket I was meant to cover up with was full of holes and made of a material that irritated my skin.
“We know exactly who you are,” the old Verian man with the bushy eyebrows said to me. “So it isn’t going to do you any good to try to lie your way out of this. We’re going to get the information we need from you, whether we have to do it by force or not.”
He hesitated for a moment, sucking in a deep breath and crossing his hands behind his back, giving off the impression of a plump nobleman with an inflated sense of self as he marched back and forth in front of my cell.
“I’ve had it with humans and their incorrigible appetite for destruction,” he continued. “I’m not going to go easy on you.”
I felt a chill creep down my spine. From the look in his eyes, I knew that he wasn’t lying. I was in for a world of trouble.
Chapter 2
Commander Pyre Juno
“I must free the human in the State’s captivity. She is valuable,” I said urgently. I had donned my pure white civilian clothes after leaving the girl in Arke’s care but had been unable to free my mind of her. Ariel was a wealth of information. Information that could mean the end to our secret opposition against the Verian government.
“Are you sure, Yul Pyre? They could trace it back to you, and then they will discover the opposition. It doesn’t seem wise!” Blaithe Corra said, his voice pleading.
“She’s got to come here. You know they’re going to mistreat her for information!” I insisted.
Ever since I had deposited the human with Arke and his crew, I had been battling with a sick feeling of foreboding in my stomach. The girl didn’t deserve to be left to the hands of the cruel men in charge. They had been chosen simply because they reflected the ruthless ideals of their leader. The master of the Verians, the current Doyan Yolatz, was taking the war in a dangerous direction. One that few Verians, let alone humans, would survive. We had to stop him.
But, I also felt that it was my duty to save the human as well. I had abducted her. She was my responsibility. This, I kept to myself. The members of the opposition simply wouldn’t understand.
“If you get caught, the opposition will surely go under. The rebellion has no legs without you!” Blaithe exclaimed. “Please, reconsider. They’re going about this war all wrong, Yul Pyre. It’s not moral!”
“Well, I can’t change how other people treat humans,” I said, throwing my hands up in the air. “But what I can do is save her.”
But Blaithe was right. It truly wasn’t the wisest course of action. The opposition was counting on me, and if I got myself caught or killed trying to rescue the human, they would surely flounder.
Regardless, I couldn’t stomach leaving the girl with the heavy-handed Arke Hatlir. He was a cruel, bitter man who was sure in himself and himself alone. He would do anything to lift the curse that the humans had plagued him with. We knew enough now to understand the origins of the disease that made it nearly impossible for the Verians to breed and zapped the typically powerful warrior men of their strength. But the only cure we had discovered so far was interbreeding, and some men who were too far gone in the disease weren’t even able to do that. Men like Arke.
“Actually, we have a real opportunity here, Blaithe,” Jae Gronda said. “We can use her to further our agendas! We can use her for the opposition!”
It was nice to hear somebody siding with me. For some reason, this mission felt imperative. Of course, I saw the sense in using the human’s knowledge for our own mission. But what I was mostly concerned with was her well-being. How could I explain that to my men? I probably shouldn’t. They would never understand. Most Verians would do whatever they could to rid the world of one more human; it would make no difference to them whether she was dead or alive. All they wanted was the information she might have to aid us.
“I know that,” Blaithe growled, doing his best to keep his temper under control. “There is opportunity in everything! Just as there is risk.”
It looked like things were finally leaning in my favor. The human wasn’t safe with Arke. That much was certain. But if I was going to break her out of that prison, it was going to take a lot more than good intentions. I could lose my job and be labeled a traitor. And for what? To keep a human I barely knew from suffering? It had to mean more than that. It had to further our cause. I couldn’t just go blindly into a mission like this, for the sheer sake of unwarranted attraction. It was against the law to love a human, and that probably extended to infatuation too. I would definitely be persecuted if I even considered it.
Still, the human had managed to linger in my mind the night they had met. She was something else, all right. No female on Helna would have ever dared to speak to me in such a manner. But this human was fearless and brazen. It made me angry, sure, but at the same time, it was refreshing. I was used to being in charge, and most people kissed up to me because of it. It was hard to find genuine people who would speak their minds with me. Those who did generally tended to be krachas. This female was different though. She wasn’t trying to be cruel. She was trying to be honest.
“We have to bring her here before they get too much information from her. They’re going about this war all wrong. And with the girl, they’re going to get exactly what they want. And you know that isn’t going to be a good thing,” I said as slowly as I could. I had to approach this from a point of view that would benefit the opposition if I wanted the team
on board. And I would need them to rescue the girl. “The new Doyan is merciless. There won’t even be any vegetation left on the planet by the time they get through with it if they bully that human into giving them answers.”
“I know,” Blaithe said. “You don’t have to spell it all out for me. The Doyan is bad news. We all know that much. When Helna is gone, we don’t want to invade a half-dead planet and have the same thing happen all over again later. If the human can help, then maybe…”
They had finally been worn down, and I almost grinned in relief knowing that I had gotten my way at last. I knew exactly what the men needed to hear in order to back me up on this mission. What I didn’t know was whether or not the human would even give them the answers they wanted.
Again, my mind wandered back to my first few moments of seeing the human at work; the remarkable focus and the fearless attitude she displayed, even in the face of the males who outranked her in the laboratory. I had truly never encountered another soul quite like hers. One would imagine that she was made of steel underneath that soft, ruddy skin.
And judging by the hardness in her gaze, she would easily keep her mouth shut when others would give in and betray her people. How long would she have to be tortured by Arke and his men before she broke? I couldn’t let it get that far.
“We’re willing to help however we can,” Blaithe finally said quietly, gesturing to the other seven men who had gathered in his small home.
They nodded eagerly. We had been meeting here for nearly six months as a secret opposition against the Doyan’s regime. We were all comfortable here now, but it was far too small to house a human prisoner. There would have to be some other way. If the Doyan and his men knew about our plan, it could mean the end of the line for all of us. We would have to be careful.
Ever since the position of Doyan was succeeded by the cruel Doyan Yoltaz, nothing had been the same. There were secret groups forming all over Helna in opposition to the regime, and for some reason, they were looking to me as their leader. I was the only man living on Helna in a position of power in the Doyan’s military. And as such, it was up to me to see to it that the opposition’s goals were met in a way that would provide the maximum benefit to everybody involved.
“All right then,” I said, setting my jaw. I just couldn’t bear the thought of the human’s spirit being destroyed by a man as petty and cruel as Arke. He was bitter that he hadn’t been able to spawn a child with a human female in order to regain his strength, and every year he continued to become weaker and crueler. It was a sad case in a way, but it was his choice to handle the situation poorly. I couldn’t pity him for long. All men made their choices.
I thought again about the intriguing human; her eyes seemed to hold galaxies, even if her spirit was strong. She was an incredible specimen to be sure; all the more reason for Arke to treat her harshly. I had nearly lost my mind when I had seen Harlow electrocuting her for his own sick pleasure. It took everything that I had to refrain from tearing him apart from the inside out right then and there. But I had a different punishment up my sleeve for Harlow. One he wouldn’t soon forget.
“Have you all heard about Sect 12 of the opposition?” an older man named Gark said, clearly hoping to change the subject. He spoke as if he had been sitting impatiently on his news, his eyes shimmering. “They’re planning a demonstration. They want the doyan to know that we’re here and we’re angry. It’s important that they know we’re on to them and we’re not just going to accept anything they throw at us. We have to hold true to our values as Verians. Otherwise, we might as well die out with the planet Helna.”
The group was quiet for a moment as the news sank in. A feeling of trepidation consumed me, but I held my tongue for the time being. It would be better to know what the others thought before I spoke.
“Isn’t it dangerous to show that there is opposition before we have any advantage over the government?” Blaithe said. “We don’t have any knowledge they don’t have. Right now, it’s a race that we are losing. There aren’t nearly as many of us as there are of them. And they have the super soldiers!”
I cringed. I had fought alongside battalions of super soldiers a few times, and they were merciless and cruel. They didn’t even care much for each other, and tore the enemy to shreds, delighting in every second of their fight.
“Well that’s not going to matter very much longer if we get the scientist,” Jae Gronda said decidedly. I nodded enthusiastically. Anything that I could do to convince them to help me save the girl, I would do. “If we find out what she knows, then we’re going to be able to fight our way to victory. That way, once we get to Earth, we know it will be exactly as it should be.”
I listened carefully, contemplating all sides as the room erupted into a heated debate. The only thing that anybody seemed to agree upon was that they needed the scientist.
And I was sure they were right about that. Even if it wasn’t for the opposition’s strategy to work, I knew that the female from Earth was special. I couldn’t quite put his finger on what it was about her; all I really knew was that I needed her to be mine. And I would stop at nothing until that’s exactly what happened.
***
“Glad to see you here, Commander Juno,” Arke said, a smug grin on his face. My eyes immediately searched the small shack for the human, but she had her back turned to me, lying on her side and shivering on her cot.
“Glad to be here,” I lied. The sound of my voice made the human’s head tilt a little toward the bars of her cage, and a feeling of pity swept over me. The girl was pathetic, trapped in here with these krochas. They wouldn’t do anything to help her and probably delighted in causing her harm. I had half a mind to destroy them all right then. But if I did, I would lose the one advantage I had over the mindless followers of the Doyan.
“The girl is even more knowledgeable than she appears,” Arke said, grinning cruelly into the prison cell, where the human refused to turn to face us. All we could see were waves of golden hair shimmering under the bright heat lamps aimed at her cell. “But it’s not quite as easy to get her to talk as it was with some of our other prisoners of war.”
“There are rules about the conduct of war prisoners,” I reminded him, casting a distasteful glance around the shed. “They used to mean something.”
“Yes,” Arke agreed jovially. “Thankfully the new Doyan changed all of that. Wouldn’t you agree, my dear?”
Still, the human faced the wall, though I could see her delicate shoulders tensing up under the sound of Arke’s voice. Even though he was speaking our native Verian tongue, she seemed to understand all too well what he was saying to her. I could only imagine how much worse that made her feel; it was a terrible situation. I needed to get her out of there. But how?
“Well she’s not going to talk,” I said with an unkind laugh. “At least not right now. What did you guys end up finding out about her?”
“She’s a smart human, that much is true. She knows things about energy that most humans never get around to learning until they’ve been abducted. She figures things out right in her brain, Pyre, isn’t that interesting?”
“Well, isn’t that what most scientists do, Arke?” I asked, reluctant to agree with anything that came out of Arke’s mouth. He was the biggest sleazeball I had ever met, and I couldn’t wait until the opposition took hold and dethroned the doyan and his corrupt lackeys once and for all.
“You don’t get it, Yul. She’s a female. That means that there are Earth humans who are males that her knowledge surpasses. And she should be able to rid me of this blasted curse once and for all. At least, she will once we really get her talking.”
“Yeah, we been sweet to you so far, human, but it isn’t going to last,” Lors Grefnod said with a shit-eating grin. I nearly punched him in the face right then and there. But how could I explain my behavior? It was against the law to love a human, even if love was the explanation for the peculiar thing I had been feeling. I couldn’t just go off on a whim and d
eclare to everybody that the warrior inside of me had claimed the human as his own. She hadn’t even told me her name yet, and by Verian custom, without a formal introduction, all I could refer to her as was yula or human.
“Lors is right,” Arke said with a heavy sigh. “The kindness can only last so long, really. We’re going to have to amp things up if we’re going to get any real information out of her.”
“Wait,” I said, startling everybody in the room, including myself. “Why don’t you let me give it a try. It’s not fair. I brought her in, and I don’t get to have any of the fun because I’m stuck on guard duty?”
“The yul has a point,” Arke said. His eyes glittered with mirth. He liked having a companion to share his bloodlust with. little did he know, I would be far more likely to shed his blood than the female’s. But that would have to wait. My revenge would have to be well-timed.
“You all had your fun with her, on your own and behind closed doors. I would like to do the same,” I said, cringing inwardly as I did so.
The men all cheered and jabbed at me with their elbows. They thought I meant to violate the prisoner or something. They were heathens, and I couldn’t wait to be rid of their presence in the small shack that served as this beautiful human’s prison. Even if I couldn’t save her yet, I could at least learn to speak her name. Human dialects could be very difficult for a Verian’s tongue, just as Verian dialects were difficult for humans.
“Yula,” I whispered once everybody had left the room. I knew they were probably all peeking in at us, but it was the best that I could do. I couldn’t stand the thought of having them near her for one more minute.
“Go away!” the human hissed. “Can’t you see you’ve done enough? You left me here with these…these barbarians!”
She sounded betrayed, though the idea that she had trusted me at all in the first place was baffling. Still, I couldn’t blame her for her anger. I was angry with myself as well.
