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“Serenity, you should not have come here.”
“What do?” there were tears trembling in her pretty amber-colored eyes.
“It isn’t safe for you to be near me.” Hruk glanced up at Jagga and Grodd, who were standing nearby. “It isn’t safe for anyone to be near me.”
“Why?”
“Serenity, please. It is for your own safety. That is all I can tell you.”
The female’s face suddenly flushed pink with anger, and she shouted some word in her own language. Hruk actually flinched a little. She could be scary when she was pissed.
She plucked the translator device from her ear and placed it on Hruk’s.
“You’re an idiot!” she growled. “A gods-rotted idiot. All of you gods-rotted ukkur are insane, and I’ve had enough of it. Now you tell me what this is all about, and don’t give me any of that ‘it’s for your own safety’ nonsense. You told me that once before, and it doesn’t make any sense.”
“Serenity…”
“Don’t you ‘Serenity’ me. You need to tell me what’s going on with you. Ibeepyou, Hruk, and I’m not going to move until you tell me.”
The translator left out one of her words. That one must not be part of the language used by the nith and the ukkur.
But one thing was clear—the little human was not taking no for an answer.
She was as stubborn and defiant as ever.
If he had wanted to, Hruk could have easily flung the little creature off of him and completed the task at hand. However, she had endured so much during the past days, and Hruk felt she deserved to know the truth about his past. He decided to tell her.
Hruk took off the translator device and gently looped it on Serenity’s ear again.
“Very well,” he said. “I’ll tell you my story. I’ll tell you about my curse…”
CHAPTER 37: SERENITY
Serenity waited until Hruk had set his knife aside before moving off his lap. She sat beside him on the flat boulder while Grodd and Jagga squatted on the ground, listening. For a moment, the only sounds were the rustle of the leaves and the intermittent cries of birds. Then Hruk began his tale.
Just like every adult ukkur on this planet, his life had begun in slavery. The nith had made him in their laboratories. Once his body had reached maturity, the nith had plucked him out of his nutrient tank, conditioned his mind with their language so he could follow instructions, and set him to work in the ksh fields with his other artificially created brethren.
It was a hard existence. Hruk was forced to work day and night with very little rest. Even so, his labor was never enough to satisfy his cruel and sadistic masters. The nith frequently beat him with the nettle whips, leaving deep scars on his back.
Hruk endured it all without complaint.
The only bright points in his life as a slave were his friends Vam and Dak. The nith discouraged friendships among the slaves, but Hruk and his companions devised a system of subtle hand signals and grunts which they used for surreptitious communication. At first, they only used their secret language for simple things—cursing the nith and making crude jokes to lift each other’s spirits.
But eventually their conversations turned to more serious matters.
Escape.
Vam, who had the sharpest eyes of the three, had noticed a weakness in the energy fence that surrounded the farm. The fence consisted of a series of high metal pillars with impenetrable force fields in between. However, one section of the fence was defective. The energy field flickered slightly. Vam tested it when the nith were not looking and discovered that by applying enough force he was able to punch his fist through the field. It was incredibly painful, but it worked.
The three friends made a plan to charge the gate. They knew the nith might discover the defect at any moment, so there was no time to delay or to tell the others about their plan.
They made their attempt the following day.
It worked.
During their usual working routine, the three ukkur friends charged the fence one after another. Running at full speed, their massive bodies had more than enough force to push through the defective field. When Hruk passed through, the pain was excruciating, like an intense electrical shock burning every nerve ending. His bowels screamed, his teeth ached, and his eyes felt like they would explode with pressure.
But the pain only lasted for an instant, and then he was on the other side of the fence.
