by Lexi Ander
"He is brave and brash," his father replied, a hint of pride in his voice. "His blindness does not deter him."
"But he is not built like us, love. If he had fought with anyone other than his brothers, he would be more wounded than he is. They may have been angry, but they did pull their punches."
That was the first time Zeus heard his parents worry about his lack of sight, or how they were afraid it would cause him to be killed. Zeus startled when Sohm'lan grasped his neck.
"Do not add eavesdropping to your list of infractions today, son." Sohm'lan paused as he steered Zeus toward the physician's office. "The best thing you can do is prove them wrong."
The dream started to fade and change. Zeus held his mother's hand. His father strode before them, a strong force of determination emanating from him. This place—Zeus refused to remember and attempted again to pull out of the dream.
"Do not struggle, Zeus," Shaneva chastised. "It is time for you to claim your destiny, but you cannot do so until you acknowledge the past." She pushed him this time until he collided with a cloudy wall.
He could practically smell the magic surrounding him. Zeus did not want to be there on the strange ship. He did not want to change, but his parents were frightened for him, even after he reassured them that he was fine. It was his fault that he had been injured. He ignored his senses, his instinct, and now his parents thought the only way to safeguard him was to give him sight.
But he did not want to see.
The thud of thick-soled boots from the imperial guard who surrounded them resounded in the confined space. They boarded the Chtichlian vessel Fate. The scientists among them were well known geneticists. If anyone could engineer a way to give Zeus his sight, it was these strange creatures that reeked of sweet soil and potent magic.
"Emperor Valdor Vondorian, it is our pleasure to meet you. I am called Aisa."
There was something about the voice, the sibilance and hard clacks, that set Zeus's teeth on edge. He wanted to run. He did not understand where the growing panic came from. All he knew was that he did not want to be there.
"Father, please, this is unnecessary. I am fine. I promise I will not get hurt again. Let us go home." Zeus tugged on Valdor's hand.
"This is for the best. You will be fine, son."
"This is your child?" There was a hint of alarm in the Chtichlian's question.
"Is there a problem?" Ashari asked in a haughty tone, the one she took when someone treaded on thin ice. Zeus held his breath. If the scientist upset either of his parents, they would leave the ship and go back home—he hoped.
"No, Empress, there is no issue. When we were contacted about an Atlaintician royal we only assumed the child would be Mar'Sani."
His mother hissed at the offense. "Zeus is my son, Aisa." Valdor snapped. Zeus almost did not withhold his grin of triumph.
"Our sincerest apologies, Emperor Valdor, Empress Ashari. We meant no offense. Please forgive our ignorance. We were unaware of the interracial qualities of Atlainticia's royal family. We assure you that in no way will it affect our work to restore his eyesight, if it is indeed possible."
Zeus sensed the tension in his parents' ease and knew they would not be leaving the foreign ship anytime soon. He attempted to put on a calm façade so he would not dishonor his parents with his unfounded dread.
"If you will?" Aisa inquired.
Valdor placed Zeus's hand on a hard cool, exoskeleton covered in stiff hair. "We will be waiting for you, son," Valdor whispered in Zeus's ear, as if he understood Zeus's inner battle.
He did not trust his voice, so Zeus nodded his acknowledgment. His mother squeezed his other hand before he followed the new guiding hand.
The sharp tick of the Chtichlian's foot falls gave the impression of six or eight legs. The vibrations told him the walls of the corridors were much wider than those of a normal vessel, and the ceiling seemed at least three times the average height. They walked for a short distance before entering a room. He was slightly reassured that he would be close enough for his parents to hear him if he needed help.
"How old are you, Prince Zeus," Aisa asked, the voice coming from high over his head. Zeus cocked an ear, letting the echoes in the space speak to him.
"Thirteen," he replied.
The height of the room was much taller than the corridor, and there were several somethings or someones moving around up there. He had the sense of hollow tubes crisscrossing the room overhead. He heard small chirps and other sounds, maybe moving water, which sounded around the outer edge of the area.
"I am placing your hands on the chair that you will need to climb into. Do not be afraid, but we will have to strap you into place. Eye surgery is very delicate so you will be placed under sedation, but still, if you move you would lose the possibility of regaining sight."
Aisa placed Zeus's hand on the strange, segmented leg of the chair. "First, you will need to change out of your clothes." Something soft was pressed into his palm. "I will step away for a moment."
Zeus tried not to think about what was going to happen, or that he did not want to be there. With trembling hands, he undressed and folded his clothes in slow, deliberate motions. He wrapped the robe around himself. There was no tie, which made climbing into the chair a challenge because the cloth kept catching on corners and edges. Once settled, he allowed his hands to travel over everything he could reach from the seat. He wanted an idea of what surrounded him. The scamper above did not let up, becoming white noise in the background.
Aisa returned to the room. Considering the waves of magic Zeus sensed, two other Chtichlians followed Aisa.
"Prince Zeus, I have brought with me my colleagues, Moirai and Parcae. We are going to strap you to the chair, as I told you earlier. Moirai will administer the sedative before we begin."
Zeus greeted both Chtichlians, automatically noting the differences in their voices. One of the three approached on his left side, and a spicy scent tickled his sense of smell. Zeus concentrated on breathing in through his nose and out through his mouth because a wave of panic caused grittiness to form under his eyelids. The need to run almost overpowered him. His chest constricted; he was on the verge of hyperventilating.
"You will feel a stick and then things will be all better." Zeus recognized the voice to his left as belonging to Moirai, the Chtichlian's spicy scent caused his stomach to roll with nausea.
He gulped air and barely felt the stick of the needle in his neck. Fire, like nothing he had ever felt before, traveled through his veins. He attempted to grit his teeth against the pain, but nothing happened. His body felt weighted, as if gravity pressed down on him to the point he could not move his fingers or toes. Agonizing seconds passed, and he waited for sleep to take him under. Why was he not unconscious?
"He is sedated," Moirai stated in a flat tone.
"Parcae, check him and make sure I am not mistaken," commanded Aisa.
"You are right, this boy is the decoy. How he ended up in the hands of the Mar'Sani instead of the Alliance, I know not. We placed the vessel directly in the humans' path. I do not understand how they could have missed it."
Zeus tried to say something, let the Chtichlians know he was still awake, but nothing worked. He was trapped within his body, aware and able to hear them, but unable to give any indication to his predicament. The longer the Chtichlians spoke, the more frightened Zeus became.
"There is nothing we can do about it now," Aisa sighed, a slick clicking sound. "The ruling males of his family-line gain their sight between the ages of five and ten. He is thirteen. If we wish for him to continue to be the decoy then we must restore his eyesight."
"Yes," Moirai agreed. "We should be able to reverse what we did at his birth. The appropriately programmed nanites can reconnect the optical nerves. We should set a timer so he gradually gains sight to give his mind time to process what is being transferred."
Confusion turned to horror as he listened to the conversation around him. He needed to call out to his pa
rents. They were down the hall, not far at all, and yet they may as well have been light years away. He needed to escape from these monsters who claimed to have stolen his sight and then placed him in danger's path. Young he might have been, but his training with Warlord Sohm'lan helped him to understand what the terminology actually meant. Zeus struggled within the prison of his mind to break free from the drugs, but he failed. The longer he stayed trapped, the more he became unraveled.
"Zeus," a young, soft voice whispered in his mind. He knew the lilt, the tone, the sound of a very young Shaneva, his sister. "You must calm down."
"I do not know if I can. Oh, Gods, I have to get out of here! Are you trapped too?" As exciting as discovering a telepathic link to his sister should have been, the awe became lost in his panic.
Shaneva made soothing shushing noises, and suddenly, Zeus did not feel so alone anymore. "There you go, little brother. Do not let the panic consume you. You must listen and remember what goes on here today. I will stay until Father comes."
"They are going to hurt me." Zeus wanted to cry out, but he had been robbed of the ability.
"I will help you through it. Rest against me; allow me to support you."
Zeus relaxed into his sister's embrace and grudgingly returned to the conversation.
"Do you think we should move the Bespoken?" Moirai asked.
"He is well hidden. The Alliance will never think to look for him there," Aisa replied.
"I think we are going to have another problem. Look here," Parcae said with a grim tone.
"Well, that is unexpected. I did not realize all males of his family-line developed both sets of sexual organs."
"It appears the guardian was less than completely truthful with us. Another six months, and we would not have been able to stop this development."
"The whole point of setting him up as a decoy was so the humans would not catch a reproductive male," Moirai snapped. A round of angry clicking echoed off the walls.
"Well, we are in time to remove the organ."
"He will still produce eggs each cycle."
"But with nothing to house them. We can redirect the flow to be discharged with the semen. He will never know," Aisa said distractedly.
"Oh, we have a problem." Moirai's tone was pinched. "I did not give him enough sedative. Our young prince has overheard us." Something brushed Zeus's face, smearing liquid around on his cheeks.
"Give him another dose and add an inhibitor to it. Wipe his short term memory," Aisa commanded.
"Come," Shaneva whispered. Zeus felt himself pulled away from his body to float on soothing waters, resting against his sister. "See, I told you I would not leave you." Satisfaction laced her soft tone.
"You were not supposed to bring him here yet, Shaneva," said a masculine voice Zeus did not recognize. The tone gave Zeus the impression of a young the male about his own age.
"Their sedatives affect him strangely, and the things they are going to do … he would have been trapped in the pain. He is our brother. You could not have left him either."
A large hand brushed his hair away from his face. Zeus's body, especially around his abdomen, throbbed with a dull ache, and his head pounded.
"I do not feel very good," Zeus murmured.
"What are they doing to him?" The palm moved to his forehead, and the male hissed like a full grown Mar'Sani bull. "They dare to tamper!"
Zeus panted, the pain becoming sharper.
"I can feel what they are doing. We have to do something, Canry. We cannot let them hurt Zeus further." Shaneva's words were tearful.
"No, we cannot," Canry agreed.
Large, warm hands cupped Zeus's face, breath ghosted over his skin. The scent of green kelp, salty oceans, and a mixture of Azaes, Mestor, and Shaneva blended with something golden and warm. The spice of a God?
"Are you ready to call Father to your aid?" Canry asked, and Zeus nodded. Suddenly needing to know, Zeus grasped the young bull's face in his hands. The scales were expected, but the humanoid features were not. The lips smiled against Zeus's fingertips. "You will see me again, brother mine. Now, scream for our father!" Canry shoved Zeus, propelling him forward.
"Father!" Zeus shouted with every bit of energy loaned to him by Shaneva and—his brother?
The bellow of a half-dozen Mar'Sani bulls immediately responded to his call. Zeus discovered he could not stop. Conscious again, he bore the full weight of the agony reaped upon his body by the Chtichlians, and his voice lifted higher in response to what he felt. Metal crunched, the chittering above him intensified, the clacking of the Chtichlians resounded, and yet he distinctly heard the voice of his father, Emperor Valdor Vondorian of Atlainticia, calling his name.
Anger, fear, and power pulsed through the air, washing over Zeus in a soothing wave. "What have you done to my son?"
"Come, Zeus." Shaneva called to him, her voice older, more mature. "It is time for you to wake, brother, and remember."
Zeus woke, already sitting upright in bed. He glanced at the digital display and rubbed his eyes. It was the dead of night. Hours before he would be required at the incoming space dock to greet Azaes and Mestor. Whispered voices of the past prodded his memory, pushing forward events he tried hard to forget. Vestiges of the dream clung to him, making the return to sleep impossible.
Weary with fatigue, he swung his long legs over the side of the sleep platform and leaned his elbows against his knees. His hair fell to shield his face and eyes from the automatic floor lights. A fine sheen of sweat covered his nude body, chilling him once he moved away from the warmth of the covers. He closed his sensitive eyes against the low light that switched on at the floor level. He had asked to have them deactivated when he arrived fourteen cycles ago. He had been denied with the explanation it was a safety feature required by regulation.
"Horizontals off." His throat felt dry and his voice rasped as if he had been screaming. The program acknowledged his voice command, and the room plunged into blessed darkness. His sigh of relief sounded overly loud to his delicate sense of hearing.
He had spent more than half of his life blind. Even though he was able to see, he preferred the dark sometimes. He continued to be more comfortable with his other senses, trusting them over what his sight relayed to him, especially when dealing with people.
Aggravated at his sour thoughts, Zeus scrubbed a work-roughened hand through his black hair. One of the human engineers told him the blue streaks reminded him of a raven's wing. He had researched the description of the bird, but he did not see the correlation. His hair's natural highlights were not iridescent like the color in the feathers of the old Earth bird. He would have liked to ask Sam more questions, but when he discovered that Zeus had been raised on Atlainticia as a Mar'Sani, the friendly engineer began avoiding him. After that, Zeus noticed none of humans would speak to him beyond a restrained greeting in passing.
How ironic: a few of the Noble Houses from his home world sneered at him because he had been born human, and the humans shunned him because he had been raised Mar'Sani. He found he preferred the sneers—even if it were those very looks he had been avoiding when he accepted the Master Mechanic position on the Imperial Space Station Bashker'Qa. Days away from going back home to Atlainticia, and he just might kiss the first sneer he came across after arriving.
Agitated, Zeus stretched and looked longingly at the rumpled sleep platform. Sleep would not come anytime soon, not with old memories plaguing him. He needed a moment of peace, and there was only one place on the station where he knew he would find it.
He pulled on a set of his mechanic cargos and tied his hair back before leaving his quarters. The space station operated around the clock, but the hour was still early for there to be much activity in the Conti'Quan section. Stopping in front of a familiar door, he signaled a quiet hail and waited.
Zeus had accidentally stumbled onto the Conti section of the station shortly after he arrived. He had been homesick and thought he had found a public garden tucked out of
the way. The lush atrium reminded him of Atlainticia. He had not realized he had entered the private quarters of a sentient species of plant. Cleito startled Zeus terribly when he moved to sit next to Zeus.
Mortified he had trespassed, he apologized profusely, but Cleito invited Zeus to visit any time. The visits kept the home sickness at bay while Cleito became a dear friend. Zeus needed the peace of Cleito's oasis.
The door swished open, and the Conti'Quan stood aside, silently inviting Zeus into his sanctuary. "My friend, Zeus," Cleito greeted.
All sentient plants communicated through a form of telepathy comprised of words and images. Communication in the beginning had been difficult until Zeus learned how to decipher Cleito's language.
He reached out and brushed a hand over one of the vines. "Friend Cleito, I apologize for the hour."
Cleito was a mature Conti'Quan almost two full meters tall and roughly humanoid in shape. Zeus always thought of Cleito as male, though he was not really sure. Cleito's flexible roots allowed him to leave the soil and wander the station. The main stalk of his body was thick and deep green leaves entwined with several vines of varying shades of red and blue, veined with yellow. The crown of his head was covered in delicate and vibrant flower petals flowing like a waterfall down Cleito's torso. When Zeus first met Cleito, he searched for eyes discovering Cleito could see but not in the same way as others.
"Time is irrelevant. Come and sit with me. The garden is singing tonight." A blue-leafed vine wrapped around Zeus's hand and led him deeper into the atrium.
The humidity in the air instantly clung to Zeus's skin. He breathed deeply, easing the ache for home. Normally, he could hold his desire for his native land at bay, but exhaustion combined with the dream had opened old wounds and dredged up childhood memories that brought the soul-deep yearning to the surface.
Cleito set Zeus onto the wide quartz bench before kneeling and drawing Zeus's shoes off, letting him set his bare feet onto the rich, dark soil. Sitting next to him, Cleito grasped his hand again, opening up and allowing Zeus to hear the night song. Zeus glanced up to see the shielding had been retracted, and a blanket of glitter shone down on them. He wished he heard the song with his own ears. The chorus of subsonic voices sang in harmony to the star-filled sky, a view he would not see again once he went home.
