Teeth & Claws_A Paranormal Space Opera Adventure

by Michael-Scott Earle

  “I know what Yu--”

  “What if he lied to you?” Sivaha interrupted my sister. “Briefly consider the possibility that he did experiment on and torture your brother, and he lied to you about it.”

  Hanekawa’s jaw hardened for a few moments, and then she turned away from us.

  “I want to talk to him,” she said after a few moments. “You all are telling me he lied, and he did these things to Shinta-- err Adam, but I need to ask him.”

  “He will just lie again,” I said. “That is what he does.”

  “I haven’t talked to him since Wobbegong,” my sister said. “It has been almost a month. I haven’t even been able to ask him about what you told me.”

  I looked at Madalena, but I could feel her suspicion, and the look in her eyes told me what she thought about the idea. Then I looked at Sivaha. The silver-haired woman shrugged her slender shoulders and then took a small sip of wine before speaking.

  “Couldn’t make the situation any worse,” she said.

  I looked over at my mother, but I could tell that she didn’t want to get involved in my decision. I could understand where she was coming from. She’d worked her entire life to put a small amount of food on the table, then she’d worked even harder when Hanekawa started getting sick. My sister and I had engaged in typical sibling squabbles growing up, but now we were adults, and my mother didn’t want to have to deal with any of our arguments.

  “Fuck it,” I said as I stood from the couch. “I planned on talking to him before I left anyway. Mom, you don’t have to come with us, but--”

  “I’ll come,” she said, and her words surprised me a bit.

  Madalena told the guards that we would go to the brig to see Yu, and we soon had our armed escort moving with us deeper into the castle’s stomach. The jail cells were kept down in the lower levels, and I almost would have called them a dungeon, except that the walls were a sparkling white, there were plenty of lights, and the air was filtered. It took us about ten minutes of walking and two security checkpoints to reach Yu’s cell, where we found the tall blond man laying on his cot and staring at the ceiling.

  “Visitors,” the main guard said as he tapped on the bars of Yu’s cell.

  “Ahhh, it must be Adam, I--” Calvin’s words caught in his throat when he turned over in his bed and saw Hanekawa and my mother. The strange man was silent for a few seconds as he stared at my sister, but then he put on his usual annoying smile and then stood from his cot.

  “We’ve come to talk,” I said.

  “Of course,” he replied as he bowed deeply to me. “How can I serve the king of the Nordar? I will do whatever you ask. I apologize that I am not properly shaved or bathed, but the service in this hotel is atrocious.”

  “My sister has questions for you,” I said. Yu did look like shit. The man’s beard was coming in unevenly, and his clothes had sweat stains on the pits.

  The sight made me happy. Fuck this asshole.

  “Ahh yes, Hanekawa, you look beautiful today.” Yu smiled at her, and I wanted to reach through the cells and squeeze his neck until his head popped off.

  “Thank you, Calvin,” she said as she absently touched her blouse.

  “What questions did you have for me?” he asked, but I noticed that he didn’t move closer to us.

  “When you and I spoke in the past, you told me how you had tried to help my brother. You said you had used the same techniques as you used on me to uncover my true self. Do you remember that?”

  “Yes…” he said as his blue eyes flickered to me.

  “So, you never tortured my brother?” she asked. “You never sent him on crazy military missions with a bunch of other people like us? You never tried to kill him?”

  “Hanekawa,” he said with a sigh. “I would love to answer your questions, but I’m afraid your brother might harm me. As you can see, he didn’t even give me a toilet in this cell. I haven’t had a shower in four days. Can you believe it? If anyone is being tortured here, it is me.”

  “Why doesn’t Calvin have a toilet?” Hanekawa gasped as she turned to me.

  Madalena laid her hand on Hanekawa’s shoulder, and my sister glanced at her with annoyance. The expression on her face faded quickly though, and then she turned back to Yu.

  “Please answer my questions, Calvin.”

  “Look, Hanekawa,” he said as he stood up from his bed. “I have an important job to do. Our enemies are powerful and seek to devour everything. By the time I met you, I understood the process a lot more, so it was easier to uncover your true DNA. I never meant to cause your brother any pain.” He moved to the bars of his cell and wrapped his fingers around the same vertical post.

  “So, you did torture him?” she whispered.

  “No, no, no,” he said as he shot me a sideways glance. “I always tried to help him, the process was painful, but I did the best I could to make sure that he was comfortable.”

  The beast in my soul screamed, and I closed my eyes so I could fight against the shift. I wanted to shout at him and remind him of all the times he’d laughed while my body convulsed on the operating table, but I knew my arguments wouldn’t help with Hanekawa. She was going to have to figure this out for herself.

  I could feel the rage boiling from Sivaha and Madalena, and their anger wasn’t helping me control my own.

  “But what about the missions?” she asked.

  “Missions?” Yu asked, and his voice cracked a bit.

  “Yeah, my brother said you sent him on guerrilla missions to steal information from various megacorps.”

  “Ahh, well, we needed to test out his abilities.”

  “So my brother volunteered?”

  “Volunteered?” Yu laughed. “He took to it like a duck to water. You know how angry he gets. He already had so much experience with combat from his time in the Marines.”

  I forced my eyes open and saw Yu glancing at me as he spoke. Normally his face was permanently etched with his plastic smile, but he seemed a bit worried. I guessed it was because he expected me to throttle him, but then I was suddenly hit with a realization that calmed my anger.

  Yu was worried because I hadn’t gotten angry.

  He needed me to yell at him. He needed me to threaten him. It would just prove his point to my sister that I was unbalanced and angry. He was baiting me on purpose so that he could play the victim to my sister. I didn’t know the nuances of their relationship, but it was suddenly clear I was going to win this battle by keeping my cool.

  “So, there weren’t any control collars?” Hanekawa asked.

  “Control-whats?” he asked her with a nervous chuckle. “Hanekawa, I love your brother as if he was my own brother. I’d never want to hurt him. We were partners in this, and I needed your help to find him so that we could work together to save the universe. Can you convince him to let me out of this cell? He has PTSD about me. I don’t know why since I’ve always treated him well and given him everything that he has.”

  “There were collars which went around the necks of the men that you treated,” Hanekawa explained. “He said they would explode if anyone didn’t follow an order.”

  “Oh yeah,” Yu said as he tapped his chin with his finger. “You know, some of the more rowdy men wore those. The difficulty was that a lot of these folks I got from prisons and such. They weren’t exactly the nicest of fellas if you know what I mean. They wore those collars to protect the other men who I was trying to help.”

  Yu looked at me and winked as he plastered his usual smile on his face. I almost lost my shit then, but I buried my rage deep down inside myself.

  No one spoke for a few moments, and Yu glanced around before his eyes settled on my mother.

  “Andrea, you are looking splendid today. I heard they have hot springs. Have you been enjoying them?”

  “Yes, Calvin,” my mother said, but a smile didn’t come to her lips.

  Yu nodded and then bit his lip as he looked back at me. Then he looked at my sister and shrugged.
“Hanekawa, I have a lot of work to do. Your ingrate brother has forgotten everything I did for him, but I know you haven’t. I don’t expect anything in return, but I’ve told you how I feel about you, and I thought you felt the same way about me. Can you please ask him to let me out of this cell so that I can continue saving the galaxy?”

  “No,” my sister sighed, and relief flooded my stomach.

  “What? Why not?” he asked with hurt evident in his voice.

  “You lied to me,” she whispered.

  “No, I would never lie to you,” he said. “I--”

  “Stop,” she said as she held up her hand. “Fuck, I have to go.”

  “Go? Wait, why?” he asked as he moved down the bars so that he stood closer to her. “I haven’t lied. I--”

  “Love me?” she asked with a raised eyebrow.

  “Of course,” he answered.

  “Maybe you lied about that too,” Hanekawa shook her head and then turned to me.

  “I’m sorry,” she whispered. “I know you have to go. Let’s talk when you get back.” Tears were starting to trickle down the sides of her cheek.

  “Yeah,” I said. “That’s fine.”

  Hanekawa nodded and then grabbed my mother’s hand.

  Then the two of them walked away from the cell.

  “Wait!” Yu shouted. “Let me explain a bit more.”

  My sister didn’t turn around, and a group of four guards fell in behind her and my mother. Then they exited the hallway door, and I turned back to Yu.

  “Everyone smells your bullshit now,” I growled.

  “Ehhhh,” he sighed and then leaned against the bars. “Now you are going to gloat.”

  “No,” I said. “I want information. You know about the SAVO, but you haven’t given me anything I can use.”

  “You wouldn’t even know what to do with anything I could give you,” he said.

  “Try me,” I replied, but he just looked away and then walked back to his cot.

  “I’ll think about it,” he said once he lay back on his bed.

  “You’ll have two weeks,” I said.

  “What will I get out of it?” he asked.

  “What do you mean?”

  “I have some information, but like I said, it will not be useful to you. I’m being honest, Adam. You’ll get all mad at me, and then probably put a bullet in my brain. I might be willing to tell you what I know if you let me go.”

  “You are just trying to make me angry again,” I said as I fought against the beast in my soul. It wanted to tear him apart, and I did too.

  “What’s your plan?” he asked as he sat up on one arm and looked at me. “You’ll fight the SAVO. Even if you have an armada, you’ll still lose because you don’t know their weakness.”

  “They have a weakness?” I asked.

  “Ahhhh, maybe.” The blond man wiggled his eyebrows at me. “I’m sure if you think hard enough about it, you’ll figure out what it is. But if you’d like to let me go, I can save your brain from overheating.”

  “Or, we can torture it out of you,” Sivaha hissed.

  “Meh, I’m hard to torture,” Yu said. “Much in the way that Adam’s species excels at combat, my species is with deep thoughts. I can ignore most torture and just go to my happy place. Hey Adam, you wanna know who is in my happy place with me?”

  “Fuck you,” I said, but the lanky scientist laughed.

  “She’ll come around. Yeah, I had some fun with you, but look at you now. You wouldn’t have been even half the badass you are now without me.”

  “I am going to ask them to reduce your food and water until I return,” I said.

  “Wait,” Yu jumped out of his cot and then sprinted back to the cell bars. “Look, I’m just playing some games with you. No need to make my life more uncomfortable.”

  “Maybe you should just go to your happy place,” Sivaha mocked.

  “Okay,” Yu sighed. “I’ll give you something.”

  “Oh?” I asked, and I could feel excitement come from my wives.

  “Yeah,” he said as he cleared his throat. “I want a shower, and a toilet, and better food. Deal?”

  “Depends on how useful your information is,” I said.

  “Nope.” He shook his head. “I want you to agree first, and then I’ll tell you.”

  “You do not make demands of--” Madalena started to say, but I raised my hand to cut her off.

  “Fine,” I said to Yu, “I’ll upgrade your cell and food. Now tell me.”

  “I was building an army of tiger-men for a reason,” he said as his lips twisted up into a smile. “The missions you and the other subjects went on killed two birds with one stone. I needed the various items and information that you stole, but I also wanted you all to get used to those kinds of excursions.”

  We stared at each other for a few moments, but he just continued to smile at me.

  “Is that it?” I growled.

  “Can you guess why I was building an army?”

  “To fight the SAVO,” I said.

  “Yes!” He clapped his hands. “See, you aren’t as dumb as you look. If I had a crayon, I’d give it to you like a treat for--”

  His words cut off as I grabbed his neck through the bars and pulled him into the metal. A low growl escaped my throat, and I had to beat back the tiger with all of my willpower.

  “You. Need. To. Clarify.” My fingers squeezed around his throat, and I felt the air struggle to leave his throat.

  “Only your species can kill them!” he gasped, and I released my grip on his neck. Yu stumbled away from me, tripped on his big feet, and then fell on his ass.

  “Our bites,” I said as the memory of how I had killed the SAVO on Uraniel returned to me.

  “Yeah,” he choked as he rubbed his neck. “You are also somewhat resistant to their mind control powers.”

  “You could have fucking told me that at the beginning,” I said.

  “Ahh, but then I wouldn’t have gotten a nice new cell,” he said with a laugh.

  “I have questions,” Madalena said.

  “I’m sure you do,” Yu said as he stood. “Like: ‘Calvin, do you have any more soldiers like Adam that can help?’ or maybe ‘Calvin, how were you planning on getting these soldiers like Adam into position so that they could kill our enemies?’ or maybe ‘Calvin, do you know where these fuckers live?’ To which I would reply ‘I know all those things, but you are going to need to give me a lot more than a nicer cell.’”

  Madalena, Sivaha, and I stared at the man for a few moments, and then I gestured for them to leave with me.

  “Wait, where are you going?” he asked as we moved away.

  “I’ll talk to you in a few weeks,” I said, and then the guards opened the door so that the three of us could leave the hallway where Yu’s jail was.

  “Move him to a new cell,” I told one of the jail guards. “The new cell should have a shower, and toilet, but no hot water, and don’t give him a towel. Give him better food, but not by much.”

  “Yes, my lord,” the guard said, and then we continued our walk down the hallway.

  “I’m surprised you even gave him a new cell,” Sivaha said.

  “I told him I would,” I replied.

  “His words at the end were useful,” Madalena said.

  “Yeah,” I replied. “I’m confident he has more men like me somewhere training.”

  “Not men like you,” Sivaha said. “There are no other men like you.”

  “Well, men that can shift like I can,” I said as I smiled at her.

  “We have planned on meeting the Draugr forces on Uraniel,” Madalena said, “but if we can ambush them at their home sector, that might give us the upper hand.”

  “I might know where that is,” I said, and I remembered the waking dream I had where Persephone showed me the two red suns and the three planets circling in their gravity well. “It is on the other side of the galaxy though. We would need to use the folding drive to get there.”

&n
bsp; “No,” Madalena said.

  “Persephone has a folding drive?” Sivaha asked with surprise clear on her beautiful face.

  “Yeah,” I said.

  “It is not safe to use,” Madalena said. “I have one on Dance to the Dirge, but we never used it.”

  “You never gave me an answer about why I shouldn’t use it,” I asked, but even as I spoke, I felt my heart start to pound in my chest, and my palms began to sweat.

  “The folding drive operates by folding the universe, and then pushing through like a needle through fabric so that it comes out the other side,” Madalena explained.

  “Don’t you mean the galaxy,” I said. “You said universe.”

  “No.” The warrior woman shook her head. “The universe. The Shadow Eagles have them on board, and we have done extensive research on them, but we do not know how to build one.”

  “Ahhh, shit,” Sivaha sighed, and we both looked at her.

  “What’s wrong?” I asked.

  “Before I was Vaish, my clan spent a great deal of resources on trying to develop a folding drive because we heard the Vaish had one. Now I realize that we just wasted our time. No matter.”

  “So, it is dangerous to use the folding drive?” I asked Madalena.

  “We don’t fully understand how the universe is put together,” the Prime Valkyrie said with a shrug.

  “I already used it once, and I am fine.”

  “Hmmm,” Madalena said as she looked at me. “You also have dreams where the Draugr try to attack you.”

  “That might not be connected,” I said.

  “Or it might be.” Madalena’s mouth twisted into a frown.

  “We can figure it out later,” Sivaha said. “I am eager to return to Persephone so that we might give our gifts to our husband.”

  “Gifts?” I asked them both as we exited the castle and moved to our hovercraft.

  “Yes,” Madalena said, and I could feel the pleasure pulse from both her and Sivaha.

  “I ahh, didn’t get you two anything,” I said.

  “You did not need to,” Madalena said. “Wives must take care of their husbands.”

  “But I--”

  “You are a good man,” Sivaha interrupted me. “Let us give you these gifts. We only wish to please you, not make you feel bad that you have not given us anything. You are Odin’s avatar and will be reuniting the Nordar banner under one people. That is a gift to us.”