Heartless
Page 21
Her eyes snapped up and got caught in the blue sky of his gaze. “Brain damage?” Could this get any worse?
Varrow offered her a reassuring smile. “Minor, I’m afraid. You may suffer some headaches, confusion, and memory loss, but we’ve administered a nano protocol that is right now working to fix the damage. Since our nanos were calibrated for Oscavians and not humans, we’ve had to reprogram them and slow down the healing process to monitor it closely, but so far your results are promising.”
“Why are you helping me?” Maybe her mind was caught in the confusion that he’d warned her about, but Laurel was having trouble keeping up. She’d gone from being held and controlled by slavers to now being healed by some random researcher on an Oscavian ship. How? Why? She’d heard of the Oscavian Empire, who hadn’t? But it was some giant power a gazillion light years away from home. They barely interacted with humans, so why did this one care?
A fire seemed to light up in Varrow’s eyes and his jaw tightened, a tic showing the emotion he was trying hard not to let take him over. “Slavery is an abomination,” he spat. “No intelligent being should be subjected to the whims of beasts who would take what is not theirs. It is not often that I am given the opportunity to help so directly, but when we saw you, my crew did not hesitate. I know it must be hard to trust us, but we mean you no harm. You are free to move about any parts of the ship that aren’t marked for crew only. My onboard medic has told me that you’ll need some more tests before we can safely get you to one of the human embassies, but once we’re certain that no harm has come to you, we will do everything we can to return you to your people.”
Laurel was so overwhelmed that she couldn’t breathe. This all seemed too good to be true, no, this was beyond too good to be true. How could she have gone from the depths of slavery to being recovered by someone who seemed like he just wanted to help a victim with nowhere else to go? For the first time in longer than she could remember she smiled. Maybe, just maybe, everything was going to be alright.
DRUATH NAKAM KNEW PAIN. He knew it as a warrior of the Detyen Legion and as one of the last surviving members of his race. He’d been trained to endure hardship, torture, and any number of unspeakable things that could be done to a man. But he’d never before known this.
The sound of anguish lodged in his throat, his vocal cords frozen and unable to make any sound. Ice flowed through his veins, freezing him and ripping him up from the inside. At first he’d been able to watch the fluid flow from a container on the wall beside where he was chained, but he’d long since lost the ability to see.
He’d not been physically blinded, there was nothing wrong with his eyes, but his mind was so focused on the pain that everything he saw no longer made any sense. There was light and shapes and all manner of things, but he couldn’t tell what any of it meant. Not anymore, not when there was just pain.
The sudden absence of excruciating torment was almost worse than anything else. Dru gasped, his lungs filling fully for the first time in an eternity as the lights around him suddenly brightened. After a moment he started to make out the shapes around him, seeing the three Oscavians who held him captive wherever he was. A space ship, if he had to guess. His mind snapped back to focus, taking in his surroundings as his training kicked in. His skin was too sensitive to be touched, and every cell hurt, but his mind was still intact.
For now.
As the lights dimmed, a shadow moved in front of Dru and it took him a moment to realize it was an Oscavian in a gray jacket crouching in front of him, studying him with intense blue eyes. “Oh my,” he said, voice full of wonder. “You are an exciting specimen, aren’t you?”
Dru didn’t have the energy or the muscle control to spit or snarl, but he just about managed a scowl.
It only made the Oscavian smile wider. “I’ve never seen one of you in person before,” he said conversationally. “I suppose that’s to be expected, isn’t it?” He paused to let Dru respond, but when he remained silent the Oscavian pursed his lips and stood up. He looked over his shoulder to one of the other butchers in the room, but whoever he was talking to was too far away for Dru to get a good look. “Are his preliminary results as expected?”
“Yes, sir. Within 2% of the predicted baseline.” The voice that responded was higher, might have belonged to a woman, but Dru couldn’t be certain.
Sir, or whatever his real name was, clapped his hands, the sound an explosion in Dru’s ears. “Your little legion produces perfect Detyen specimens, did you know that?” This time he didn’t wait for Dru to try and respond. “You’re all so focused on survival that you’ve gotten rid of all of the things that make life fun... and offer complications for predictive computer models. If you weren’t on the verge of destruction I might try and find a way to thank your leaders.”
Verge of destruction? Dru’s head lolled up and his gaze connected with his tormentor. He couldn’t speak, but the question lay plainly in his eyes.
“Your headquarters,” he explained. “Where did you think we found you?”
It came back to Dru in a crash of insight. The recovered women, the betrayal of their location, the battle. His stomach clenched as he remembered the injury he’d taken, the reason he’d stayed behind to make sure that the ship full of human survivors and his fellow warriors made it out of the hangar. He wasn’t wounded now, there was no pain there, at least none any worse than the rest of him. Had his captors healed him only to torture him? What kind of monsters were they?
“This is a scientific vessel,” his captor said, reading his mind. “I’ve long wished to make a Detyen a subject of study, but none have ever been so readily available.” He waved at his companions and Dru was jerked out of his slump and into a sitting position. “Now, I’d like to apologize that we’ve had such an unpleasant start. New specimens are so exciting and my colleagues could not help themselves. If you were a scientist, I’m sure you’d understand.”
Dru just looked at him. He was pretty sure he could manage words now, but there seemed to be no point when this guy liked the sound of his own voice so much.
“There is nothing to be done about all that,” he said, dismissing the torture as if it were a mild inconvenience, and Dru almost wanted to laugh. This whole conversation was so far outside the bounds of normalcy that he didn’t know what else to do. “We’ll move on and all can be forgotten, but it’s entirely up to you.”
“It is?” Huh, it turned out sarcasm was completely possible, even when chained up in some mad scientist’s lab and under threat of certain death.
The tormentor went on as if Dru had said nothing. “I can’t promise you that you’ll live, as we both know that you come with an expiration date, and besides, the final sequence of experiments we have to perform are not designed with your comfort in mind.”
Oh goody. Dru kept the words to himself and distantly wondered why he wasn’t scared. He must have moved past terror and into anger at some point. He hoped the fear didn’t come back. Anger gave him strength.
“If you cooperate, we’ll see to your comfort for as long as possible. Disobey and you’ll wish for the gentle comfort of the experiments that my people have just performed on you. Do you understand?”
Dru understood perfectly. This wasn’t actually a choice. But he had to survive through this if he was going to make it out the other side. “What’s your name?” It came out a husky growl, more animal than person.
“You can call me Varrow.”
Despite it all, Dru managed to smile. Varrow. He couldn’t wait to put the name on that man’s tomb.
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