“I’ll stay with the child,” she said quietly. “I have experience with infants.”
Every instinct she had screamed at her to refuse. But she could see the guard’s hand drifting towards the weapon at his belt, and she knew that resistance here would only make things worse.
Becsul will find me,she told herself.Whatever this is, he’ll handle it.
“Thirty minutes,” she said tightly. “If I’m not back in thirty minutes?—”
“You’ll be back when Councilor Naran releases you.” The guard gestured towards the door. “Move.”
She pressed a kiss to Robbie’s forehead, inhaling his sweet baby scent, and reluctantly handed him to the technician. The female accepted him carefully, cradling him against her chest with what appeared to be genuine tenderness.
“I’ll keep him safe,” she murmured, so quietly only Melissa could hear. “The Captain made arrangements.”
Her heart stuttered. The Captain. Becsul had planned for this?
She didn’t have time to process the implications. The guard’s hand closed around her elbow, not quite painfully, and steered her out of the cell.
The room the guard escorted her to was exactly as intimidating as she’d imagined. The ancient stone walls loomed over her, covered in carvings she couldn’t read and weapons that looked far too functional to be purely decorative. The councilor himself sat in an enormous throne-like chair, his posture relaxed, and his expression pleasant in a way that made her skin crawl.
“Dr. Desai.” He gestured to a chair across from him. “Please, sit. Make yourself comfortable.”
She didn’t move. “Why am I here?”
“Direct. I appreciate that.” Naran steepled his fingers, studying her with black eyes that were both the same and completely different from Becsul’s. “I wanted to speak with you personally. We haven’t had the opportunity to become acquainted, and given how… closely… our futures are intertwined, I felt it was past time.”
“Our futures aren’t intertwined. I’m a prisoner.”
“Semantics.” He smiled, showing teeth that were just slightly too sharp. “You’re a participant in the most important scientific endeavor our species has ever undertaken. The survival of the Cire race may well depend on your cooperation.”
“My cooperation.” She let the word drip with contempt. “Is that what you call it?”
“I call it pragmatism.” Naran rose from his chair and circled around the room, moving with a fluid grace that reminded her uncomfortably of a predator stalking prey. “You’re an intelligent woman, Dr. Desai. Surely you can see the logic of our position. Our people are dying. Every year, more of our cities stand empty. We face extinction within a generation.”
“And you think kidnapping women from other worlds is the solution?”
“I think we must explore every option available to us.” He stopped a few feet away from her, close enough that she had to tilt her head back to meet his eyes. “Including options that may be… morally complex.”
“There’s nothing complex about it. What you’re doing is wrong.”
“Wrong by whose standard?” His smile didn’t waver. “The Vedeckians who sold you to us? The Council members who authorized the purchase? The scientists who volunteered for this project?” He leaned closer. “Or perhaps Captain Becsul, who has been instrumental in… preparing you for the procedure?”
Her blood ran cold. “Becsul has nothing to do with?—”
“Becsul has everything to do with this.” Naran’s voice dropped to something soft and dangerous. “He was selected for this assignment specifically because of his genetic profile and his… malleability. I’m pleased to see my assessment was correct. He’s become quite attached to you, hasn’t he?”
She said nothing.
“Oh, don’t worry. I’m not upset.” Naran settled back into his chair with the casual confidence of a man who held all the cards.“Dr. Veyalor believes that attachment is precisely what we need for the procedure to succeed.”
“What do you want?”
“I want you to understand your position.” Naran’s pleasant facade cracked slightly, revealing something cold and hard beneath. “You are not going to escape this facility. You are not going to be rescued. Captain Becsul is not going to spirit you away to some romantic future among the stars. These are fantasies, Dr. Desai. The sooner you accept reality, the easier this process will be.”
“And if I don’t cooperate?”
“Then I’ll find other ways to motivate you.” He picked up a datapad from his desk, scrolling through something she couldn’t see. “Captain Becsul has served the Cire people faithfully for twenty years. He lost his family to the Red Death and is genuinely devoted to our survival. It would be a shame if that service were… forgotten.”
The implication hung in the air between them.
