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Thorn has her measure instantly. He is also not alone. I can see Avel behind him, the great purple winged saurian glaring at Raine with overt disapproval at her rampant disrespect.
“Avel, take the aggressive female,” Thorn orders. “The other two will go to other captains. I don’t want any of these humans coming into contact with one another. Certainly not with Suli, and absolutely not with whoever this one is.” He gestures to Raine with a displeased, pointed finger.
“My name is Raine, and aggressive doesn’t begin to describe me,” she says. “I hope whoever you think you can just give me to is ready to die, because I will kill him. I am not like Sullivan. I do not enjoy captivity for its own sake.”
Zara and Mouse are looking at me in the hopes I’ll do something to intervene. They’re the ones I feel sorry for. Raine, not so much. Raine deserves everything that’s coming to her. She’s the one who set the events in motion that landed us all here.
My suit has been restocked with all the items taken out of it, but they haven’t all been put back in the exact places they came from, which means I have to take time sort of surreptitiously searching my pockets without being observed. It’s not easy.
I find what I’m looking for while Raine distracts the saurians with an absolute tirade of threats that even have me concerned for our wellbeing, even though I know very well that the crew will never fire on us. With Raine and I both down here, they’re going to stick around and they’re going to hold fire.
Zara and Mouse are my priorities now. Getting them back up onto the ship, away from the threat of captivity, and able to communicate to the others exactly what is happening here. That’s the best option we have right now.
“Zara. Mouse. Prepare to evacuate!” I snap the words as I toss an emergency transport beacon to the pair of them. Zara catches it, grabs Mouse, and in a flash of light the pair of them are safely transported up to the ship.
There is a collective sound of concern from the saurians, who don’t seem to have that kind of transport technology. They really are a primal species. Things like bikes and cars might seem advanced to them, but they’re really ancient tech at this point. And the port might allow ships to come and dock and whatnot, but the saurians themselves stay clear of the air — aside from the ones like Avel who can fly anyway.
I have to hope that Zara and Mouse have the sense to get the vessel the hell out of the city, because there is only a matter of time before the saurians realize we have infiltrated their near airspace. The last thing I want is to see my crew shot down, or perhaps even worse, captured en masse.
Raine catches my eye as the pair disappear, and nods at me with a hint of respect. She didn’t expect to be rescued. She’s brave, I will give her that. She knows what she has coming to her. She saw the condition I was in. Stripped naked, marked on my ass and thighs with the results of saurian discipline implements. She has to be afraid. She’s one of the most prideful people I’ve ever known, and I am certain the last thing she is going to be allowed to keep here is her dignity.
“Take that suit offnow, Suli!”
Oh. Right. Dignity is also the last thing I am going to be allowed to keep either.
Thorn is predictably pissed. I’ve deprived him of two prey, and I’ve performed another trick he can’t replicate or understand. I’m going to keep my secrets too. He can have my body, and hell, maybe even my heart. But he can’t have my mind.
I sigh and start to unzip it. I knew I wouldn’t be allowed to keep it. I don’t care about being naked and punished anymore. That’s starting to become my natural state. I think there’s a part of me that almost enjoys it. At least I’m finally getting what I deserve. All these years having become a perversion of the version of the person I set out to be have led me to this place, where shame and pain are like the very air I breathe.
“I left you in a cage,” he says. “And I come back to chaos. How is that possible?”
“Well, for once, this wasn’t my fault. My friends came to try to help me. That’s not a crime.”
“No. But breaking into my home after creating a deliberate distraction, interfering with the natural behavior of a primal, and threatening total destruction of the alpha and his home — those are all crimes. Serious. Significant crimes. And don’t forget, you’re all self-avowed pirates, which is also a kind of crime.”
“Sure, but on this occasion, no piracy was committed. Raine can’t help herself.”
“Does she have a brain chip too?”
“What is he talking about?” Raine snaps the question. “Brain chip?”
“Nothing. Don’t worry about it,” I say quickly. I really wish he hadn’t mentioned the chip out loud. I never really explained everything about that. I told him the barest details necessary to explain the situation I was in. I never told him that chips are kind of a big deal among humans. That there’s…
“I do worry about it, Sullivan. Why is he talking about brain chips? Are you telling me…” Her eyes widen. “Oh my god, Sullivan. It makes so much sense. You’re a drone.”
My temper flares suddenly. “I am not a fucking drone!”
Drone.That’s the word I haven’t heard in years. A word I never wanted to hear again.
“What is a drone?” Thorn asks the question.
“There’s a fucking predatory organization that poses as a school of sorts,” Raine explains. “And it is a school. Sometimes. But sometimes, it’s something else. They get poor kids from colonies. Kids who have no chance of making anything of themselves. And then they get those kids fucked up and injured in training, and they sell them a cure. The cure is becoming a drone. They don’t think anything they’re not allowed to think. They don’t do anything they’re not told to do. They’re living, breathing robots. Fuck, Suli. Why did you never tell me?”
I hate hearing her tell him my deepest shame. I was hours away from becoming a peon of the academy when I escaped. The chip was only the first part of the proceedings. If I hadn’t run when I did, they would have severed parts of my frontal lobe. They would have turned me into an obedient, unafraid, programmable creature.
“I never told you because it was never any of your business. I’m not a drone.”
“No. But you were chipped. Tracked, probably. No wonder they’d always show up within hours of our raids. No wonder…” she looks at me. “You fucking Judas goat.”
