I follow him without questions to the lower levels of the underground base. We go down several
staircases before we reach a thick wooden door. Gritu takes a key out and unlocks it. We enter a
cavern with humid walls. There’s one electric lamp hanging from the ceiling above a table with four
chairs. Damian sits on one of them dressed in his Sliman clothes. He seems to be unharmed although I
have no way of knowing what goes on underneath all that heavy fabric. In the back of the cave, there’s a huge figure chained to the wall. Malzod stands beside him with a pulse gun in his hand.
I walk slowly past Damian. I feel the urge to touch him just to make sure he’s really here, sound
and safe, but I manage to control myself.
“Don’t come any closer,” Malzod says when I’m a few feet away from him and the chained
figure. Kroll.
I look at Malzod’s face and am shocked to see that it’s been beaten to the point where you can
barely see the features on it. It’s bruised and swollen and there’s caked blood on his forehead and
chin.
“Malzod,” I say. “You have to go see Doc. Let him take care of you.”
Malzod shakes his head. “First we have to do this,” he says. “I don’t think we can keep this
beast chained for much longer.”
“He did that to Malzod while sedated,” Damian chuckles. “I had to use a tranq gun on him twice
within an hour.”
“You could have killed him,” I say but I already feel the terror that Gritu and Malzod warned me
about. “How did you even manage to capture him?”
“Brains over muscles,” Damian says.
“Damian was the bait,” Gritu says. “We told Kroll we had spotted him outside the plantation but
couldn’t get to him. His ego accepted the challenge.”
“The rest was pretty easy,” Damian says.
“For you maybe,” Malzod says. Then he turns to me. “Come on, let’s not waste any more time.
Do what you have to do before the sedation wears off completely.”
A third shot will definitely kill him. One dose is enough to put an elephant to sleep. But this is
no ordinary creature I have in front of me.
“Can he hear me?” I say.
“Oh, yes, he can hear you,” Gritu says.
I clear my throat. “Kroll, my name is Freya,” I say. “I do not wish to harm you. I want to make
you a hero on Earth that will be remembered for ten thousand years. I want to bond with you.”
He lifts his head slowly. His face is hidden behind a scarlet hood, a sign that he’s as high as can
be in the ranks of the Sliman. He straightens his body as much as the chains allow him to. He’s taller than anyone I have ever seen, human or Sliman. He throws his head back and the hood falls off his
face.
He locks his eyes with mine and my heart drops. The viciousness I see on his hard features is
taken right out of a horror story. He bares his teeth and growls at me, “I will snap your bones and pick my teeth with them.”
Damian springs up from his seat and punches him in the face again and again until I order Gritu
to pull him away.
“Are you sure Zolkon’s words can be trusted?” Gritu says. “Does this beast look conditioned to
obey you?”
“All we can do is find out,” I say.
“Suppose he’s not going to bond. What then?” Malzod says.
“There’s only one thing to do if that’s the case,” I say. “We kill him.”
“We’ll kill the leader of the Dark Legion?” Gritu asks in disbelief.
“Do you have a better idea?” I say.
Gritu doesn’t reply. I take one step closer to Kroll. Damian steps next to me and trains his gun
on Kroll. I take a deep breath and try to concentrate. All Sliman have very sharpened senses and if
this one is a super Sliman, I wonder if he can smell my fear.
He’s chained to the wall by both wrists and ankles. Even like this and with Damian’s pulse gun
aiming at him, I still fear that he could kill me in an instant. No human could survive two seconds with his hands on them.
I take the final step that separates me from Kroll and stretch out my arm to touch his left hand.
He hisses and writhes as if he is faced with a repulsive demon. I touch his hand and that gives him
pause for a moment. He looks at my hand as it rests on his. Then it all happens very fast. With a
sudden burst of energy, he pulls at the chain and frees his hand in a split second. Before I know it, that very same hand goes for my throat.
I gasp for air but I find the strength to look him in the eye. Damian and Gritu jump on Kroll and
pry open the fingers around my throat. For a moment, everything goes black. Then the noose of his
hand loosens up and I can breathe again.
Damian, Gritu and Malzod all battle against Kroll’s single hand. I see my chance and take it. I
run up to Kroll and use the receptor to burn a hole in his armor. I slide my hand inside the hole and
touch the skin on his chest, right where I can feel his heart beating.
Kroll lets out an agonizing moan. He stops fighting. He looks at me bewildered, my hand still on
his chest. I bet he didn’t know he had a heart.
I reach for my touchpad with my free hand, bring Zolkon’s code up on the screen and read it out
loud just in case.
Kroll’s resistance lessens by the second. I can feel it in the way his heartbeat slows down. In the
way his chest muscles relax under my touch. He was a pulsing neuron a moment ago. Now he’s a lost
animal, one that needs protection and reassurance.
Damian watches in awe. “I didn’t believe it would be possible,” he says.
“You are responsible for him now,” Gritu reminds me. “You’ve seen what he can do. Guide him
well.”
If only I knew how. I have to trust in what Zolkon said. Trust in what I see in front of my eyes.
His surrender is complete.
“Unchain him,” I order Gritu.
“I don’t think that’s wise, Freya,” Gritu says. “Let’s wait for a while. See how he behaves.”
“There’s no time for waiting,” I say. “It will be fine.”
Gritu hesitates. So does Malzod whose face has grown more swollen.
“Just do as she says,” Damian says. “He won’t harm her.”
“How do you know?” Gritu says.
“I know because I’ve felt what he feels now.”
Damian’s words cut deep. I don’t know if he realizes this. Maybe he does it on purpose. Maybe
he wants to hurt me.
Gritu removes the chains from Kroll’s wrists and ankles.
“Don’t move,” I order him.
Kroll immediately drops to his knees. He bows his head and extends his hand to me in
surrender.
I place my hand on his head. “I need you, Kroll,” I say. “You have to bring the Dark Legion to
me.”
He nods. “Here?” he says as he raises his eyes to look at me. In those eyes I see adoration and
submission and, somehow, that makes him even scarier than before.
I quickly shake my head. “No, not here,” I say. “I will tell you what you have to do.”
I turn to Gritu. “Go get Finn.”
Gritu leaves right away. I turn my attention back to Kroll. “The Dark Legion warriors have an
added gene that makes them loyal to me. We have to activate it. You have to activate it. Read your
officers the code that I will give you and once they are turned, let them spread the word. Make sure
there’s not a single warrior left who hasn’t heard the code
. Can you do that?”
Kroll nods as I hand him a touchpad with the code on it.
“We can communicate through this. There is a scrambler built into it,” I say. “Only my machine
can decode your messages.” Kroll nods at everything I say. Even knowing all that I know about
Sliman and alien brides, it’s still pretty disturbing to accept that this fierce, menacing warrior has turned into a pet.
Right then, Gritu returns with a confused Finn.
“What’s going on?” Finn says when he sees the monstrous Sliman leader kneeling in front of me.
I touch Kroll’s shoulder. “Kroll, this is Finn,” I say. “He will be your master while I’m away.
You will obey him and do as he says.”
Kroll nods. “I swear on my life,” he says.
Finn is so astonished that his jaw drops and he doesn’t even yell at me.
*
FINN FINDS ME ON THE GRASS staring up at the stars. Kroll has been sent back to
Plantation-15 to reach out to the Dark Legion. As soon as I hear from Kroll that the legion has heard
the code, I will set my plan in motion.
“Can’t sleep?” Finn asks.
“Nope. You?”
“I was looking for you,” he says. “Zoe said you’d be out here.”
He lies down next to me crossing his hands underneath his head. He stays silent for a moment
but I can hear his brain working. Finn’s thoughts are like birds clamoring to be free of their cage and meet the chilly night air.
“Why did you do it?” he finally says. “Why did you put Kroll and the Dark Legion under my
command?”
I feel the need to meet his eyes. To be honest and let him know that I understand how I betrayed
not just him but also our lifelong bond. But it’s too late. Too many broken promises means the next
promise is just a reminder of painful memories.
“This might be your only chance if I get captured,” I say. “An army of your own. They will
protect the Saviors. And you’ll have to send someone to kill me if that happens, Finn. You know that.
Nobody will be safe if the aliens get their hands on me. Promise you won’t let that happen. If anyone
has the chance, I must be killed before they have hidden me away.”
“Stop talking like that. Nothing will happen to you, Tick.”
“Promise me you’ll take care of Tobi and Pip,” I say.
“You’re the most resilient person I know,” Finn says.
“Really? Resilient? That’s the best you can come up with?”
“Okay, you’re right. You’re powerful and you have loyal friends. Together we will make sure
nothing happens to you.”
“Just promise you’ll protect Tobi and Pip, okay?”
“Of course, I promise,” he says, “but you already know I would take care of them. What are all
these words about?”
He reaches out to take my hand in his. I feel his warmth and close my eyes. I love it when he
calls me Tick. I feel flustered and breathless. I wish I could tell him that if he kissed me, I wouldn’t pull away. Not tonight. But my mouth will not say the words and my heart sinks deeper into
loneliness.
“Look, Tick,” he says, “a shooting star.”
I open my eyes to take in the sparkling beauty of the night sky. I bring his hand to my lips and
kiss it gently. If this is my last night with him, I want him to remember me as little Tick. The girl who meant the world to him. The girl who would have done anything for him.
14
I’ve become an adrenaline junkie. I’m not sure what that means, but Doc explained it to me. I
feel most at home on the edge. He says it’s in part caused by the receptor and the crazy near-death
situations it’s gotten me into.
In two days I will have to walk through the gates of Plantation-8, the place that created most of
my nightmares. They didn’t pick this meeting point randomly. They know what it can do to me. Doc
calls it a psychological hold. I’m preparing mentally to walk through those gates, but physically
there’s nothing left to do. The hours move mercilessly slow.
At night, I go out to practice in the forest. The receptor blazes in my hand as if it’s on fire. I
target a thick branch lying on a bed of leaves. I lift it off the ground and turn it into ashes.
The next moment, I create a rainbow of light with all its seven colors and let it reach out to the
dark sky before it falls to the ground like a silk scarf.
I sense movement in the trees. I spin around holding the receptor out like a sword with a short,
pulsating blue beam sharp against the chest of Joshua. The fabric on his shirt burns ever so slightly
before I quickly turn off the dagger of light.
“Sorry about the shirt,” I say.
Joshua nods still a little in shock. He touches the burned hole in his shirt. “Better the shirt than
me,” he says.
“How long have you been watching?”
“Only a moment. Long enough to have been rendered speechless.”
“You were almost rendered shirtless,” I say with a wink.
He walks closer to me unable to take his eyes off the receptor. “You made it like a lightsaber,”
he says as if making a joke.
“A sabertooth? Rabbit told me about them,” I say.
“No, not an animal. A lightsaber was like a laser sword. There was this old movie. Never
mind.”
“Are you okay, Joshua?”
“I know this machine in your hands is dangerous,” he says, “but don’t they have an endless
supply of them?”
“They are running out of hands to hold them,” I explain.
“Even so, the few hands they have, would surely be more powerful than you. Am I not right?”
“They are dying. Their energy is unstable. I have seen them with the receptors. They grow
weaker by the second when they use them.”
“I see,” he says. “Do you think that we can prevail?”
My least favorite question. I cannot see the future. The only one I knew who could do that has
long since disappeared into the light.
“What will be, will be, Joshua,” I say dismissing his flimsy question with a flimsier answer.
He breathes in the damp, night air. “Sometimes I just want to escape thoughts of what is and
what will be.”
I consider his words. I like them. “Is this why you like your old movies full of laser swords?” I
ask.
Joshua smiles. “It’s nice to let go of routine, let go of everyday life, having a job, going to
school, eating too much or too little.”
“Those are nice problems to have,” I say.
“We cannot judge from a distance,” he says simply. “One person’s heaven is another person’s
hell. Life is what you feel in the moment. It’s not what you’re told of another’s life or what you
imagine the future could bring.”
I laugh before he has time to realize that his words have touched me. “I think I disagree with the
last part,” I say and I turn on the receptor. I create thousands of tiny silver stars that float and dance around us.
“What do you believe?” he asks as the stars sparkle in his eyes.
“Life is best when you use your imagination,” I answer. “If you forget that, you become a slave
to necessity. All that’s beautiful and horrible will never stand in line. Your heart and mind should
always have room to be wild.”
“The wilderness is a savage place,” he says.
“So is the heart,” I say. “But you already know that.”
&
nbsp; “What do you mean?” he says confused.
“There must be a reason you don’t dare to love anyone.”
I see him travel back to a place in time. “How could you possibly know about my life?”
“You are twenty-nine and single,” I answer. “There was a day that love turned too savage for
you. Was there not?”
He stares deeply into my eyes astonished.
“You are an amazing girl,” he says as he walks closer. “The depths of your soul fascinate me.”
It finally hits me why he’s here. I raise my lightsaber and place the edge against his chest to stop
him from getting any closer.
“I know what you’re doing,” I say. “It’s called flirting.”
“You are right about everything, but you have one thing wrong,” he says with what I can only
describe as a hungry smile.
“Don’t take one more step,” I warn him. “This can never happen.”
“I no longer am afraid of the savagery of love.”
“Ah, no. Yuck,” I say.
Joshua steps back hurt. “Am I so hideous to you?” he says. “Am I too old and weak and human
for your taste?”
“You’re not hideous. You’re very good looking. Just ask Zoe.”
“Zoe?” he says dismissively. “She’s just a girl.”
“She’s a year older than I am.”
“I don’t measure age in years,” he says.
“You don’t? It’s kind of the standard way to measure age,” I tease him.
“Where’s your sense of poetry?” he says not giving up.
“My poetry is on Exodus L21,” I say. “His name is Tobias.”
“Forgive me, Freya,” he says. “I just thought… you know.”
“No. What did you think?”
“That there was no man in your life.”
“Well, there is,” I tell him. “Now you know and won’t make that mistake again.”
I walk past him in the direction of the base. He catches up with me.
“Who is it?” he says.
“Where does this sudden interest in me stem from? You just found out I’m different and now
you’re fascinated?”
“Just tell me who it is. What’s the big deal?”
I make up my mind. “It’s Finn. Happy now?”
“Finn? Really? Now I know you’re lying. Finn’s not into you.”
I’m beginning to lose my patience. I don’t know what he means by that and I don’t care. I push
[scifan] plantation - books one to three Page 41
