CHAPTER ELEVEN

Crying Chambers

If I’d known then to whom and where I was being taken, I wouldn’t have played the cooperative prisoner. But ignorance is temporary bliss, and all I felt as the centurons marched me through the corridors was a sort of numb relief. Whoever SrrokVar was, I thought, he wouldn’t let FlatHead do anything out of line to me.

Not all the Hsktskt were pitiless sadists.

We walked past the slave tiers and through a connecting passage to another, remote structure-the one the trustees said was guarded around the clock. The two lizards posted at the entrance panel never permitted prisoners past that point, or so I’d been told.

A gesture from GothVar made one of the guards open the panel.

Inside was an area filled with strange-looking equipment. Some I recognized-examination and dissection tables. Electroniscopic scanners. A full forensic analyzer array. Was this the Hsktskt version of a morgue?

I had the feeling I wasn’t here to perform an autopsy.

The main enclosure branched off into smaller, closed-panel corridors. Since the panels were closed and locked down, I couldn’t tell what lay behind them. Odd stains patterned the transparent floor, due to the conspicuous absence of the efficient Lok-Teel blobs. Never a mold around when you needed one. They’d have scrubbed every surface to a pristine clarity. The faint odor of urine, feces, and blood reached my nose, and made an internal alarm go off.

Cherijo, this is not going to be fun.

Standing in the center of the consoles and rigging was the strange Hsktskt who’d been with FlatHead when he’d branded me with the hand-laser. He was dressed in a fluid-proof garment that vaguely reminded me of surgical gear.

“Dr. Torin.” The Hsktskt’s tail appendage curled up, then down. Probably what he thought of as a bow. Or he needed to use the lavatory. “I am Lord SrrokVar.” Which meant he was only a step below TssVar in the ranks. “Hello.” I made a show of gazing around me. “Nice place you have here.”

“I am pleased you think so.” To the guards, he said, “You may leave us now.” FlatHead gave me a pointed snarl, then ushered the centurons out of the chamber. Why I wanted to yell for them to come back baffled me.

“I’m gratified we will have the opportunity to become better acquainted.” Maybe it was the way SrrokVar was studying me. Like I was a small, tasty hors d’oeuvre. Or maybe it was that for a Hsktskt, he was extremely erudite. The whole package gave me the creeps.

“Does OverMaster HalaVar know about this… visit?” It didn’t hurt to throw Reever’s name in the ring. Just in case Mr. Erudite intended more than a getting-to-know-you session.

“If he knew you were helping slaves escape, HalaVar would have you placed in permanent solitary confinement.”

There was that. “I didn’t help anyone escape, Lord SrrokVar. I tried to explain that to the OverCenturon, but”-I lifted my shoulders and rolled my eyes- “GothVar is not exactly fond of Terrans.”

“Only too prevalent an opinion among my kind, I fear.” SrrokVar indicated a bare metal chair.

“Sit down, please, Doctor.”

Gingerly I lowered myself into the seat. “Am I here for discipline?” SrrokVar actually laughed-an eerie sound, coming from that inhuman throat. “No, my dear Dr.

Torin. Like you, I am a physician. My field of study in xenobiology. I thought we might talk and…

exchange experiences?”

He simply wanted to chat. And I was a Larian flatworm. Still, what could I say? “All right.” I pretended to relax in the seat while I studied his equipment array. The treadmills and spinal traction rigs started to bug me. “We could use some of this stuff over in the infirmary. Can I borrow a few things, when we’re through?”

“I have been informed that you treat slaves and Hsktskt alike.”

“Someone’s got to do it.” I tapped my fingers on the narrow plasteel chair arm. “If you’re a physician, why aren’t you attending to your people?”

“My aspirations require me to confine my efforts to research, Doctor. According to your records, you have worked on both a League colonial world and a Jorenian star vessel. I should like to hear about those experiences.”

He was definitely too well-spoken for a lizard. I wasn’t inclined to share fond memories with a Hsktskt. “That would take awhile.”

“We have sufficient time, once we clear up the matter for which you were brought here.” He tested, then adjusted the clamp on a grav-hoist. “You can do so by relating exactly what happened to the five Aksellans removed from your infirmary.”

“Far as I know, their bodies were taken to a disposal and incinerated.” He extended a limb and pressed something on one of the consoles. A bright white light swept over me, and I got to my feet. “Don’t be alarmed. It is merely a body scan.” I stayed on my feet and cradled my injured arm. “I’ve been scanned before. Why now?” He studied the resulting display data. “Two minor carpal fractures. How did you injure your wrist?”

Before I could reply, a door panel slid open, a centuron dragged a motionless prisoner into the central chamber. “Lord. This one has expired.”

“As I expected.” SrrokVar picked up a data pad, made a brief entry, then flicked his tongue at the guard. “Take it to disposal. Bring another of its kind to replace it.” The guard dragged the dead body out to the connecting corridor. I began slowly inching over in the same direction.

“Well, it’s been great meeting you,” I said. “And much as I’d love to stick around, I really have to get back to the infirmary.”

“Oh, no, my dear.” SrrokVar had two limbs around me before I could blink. “You’re not leaving. Not until you give me all the information I require.” I refused to panic. Panic got me broken bones and burned arms. “Like I said, Lord SrrokVar, I didn’t help anyone. Those five patients died as a result of toxic reaction to the inhibitors they were given.

I have living patients I need to attend to.”

“Until you give me a satisfactory explanation, you will remain here.” He picked me up like a doll, trudged over, and placed me back in the metal chair. This time two half-circles of plasteel slid out and clamped around my abdomen and thighs. Through the door panel the guard had come from, I heard the faint sound of someone weeping.

Crying… where had I heard that… ?

Crying chambers, one battered prisoner had said.

Xenobiologists studied off-world species-not that there was a big demand for that career field on Terra. The distant memory of an infamous war criminal from a mid-twentieth century conflict came back to me. A doctor. It was discovered he’d been experimenting on interred prisoners at an infamous concentration camp.

The stains on the floor and odd collection of equipment suddenly made sense. And me furious.

“You’re experimenting on prisoners, aren’t you?”

“I am determining the range of physical endurance limitations among non-Hsktskt species.” SrrokVar returned to his console and began inputting more data. “It is vital to know which slaves have the highest physical endurance ratios, so that an appropriate trade value can be assigned to them.”

“And how do you determine these ratios?” My hands knotted into fists. “By torturing them?”

“I prefer to think of my trials as testing.” He swiveled around, and calibrated a syrinpress as he approached me. “The few Terran trials I have conducted in the past have not yielded significant endurance factors in your species. However, your personal display of superior healing ability has intrigued me. I am looking forward to exploring it fully.” I told him what I thought of his monstrous work as he infused me. It got harder to swear as my tongue thickened, and the too-familiar lethargy of sedation seeped into my limbs.

“You will change your mind,” he said as he released me, caught me before I fell, and began stripping my tunic from my body. “Let us begin with what happened to the Aksellans.”

“Ak . . sel . . lans…”

Everything got hazy from there. I broke through the drugged stupor several times to find myself naked, strapped down, and being subjected to a thorough physical examination.

Have to stay awake. My bleary eyes wouldn’t cooperate. Have to know what he’s doing.

When the sedative wore off, I realized I had been moved from the main chamber into a smaller section. I glanced down. My tunic had been replaced, and my arm throbbed. The support strap on my wrist had been augmented with a bonesetter. As for the PIC, it was healing. So fast I could almost feel the edges of the burn pulling together.

I had no clue as to what SrrokVar had done. Had I told him about Noarr? Had he used other drugs to force information out of me?

A broad strap of alloy across my chest manacled me into a sirring position against one wall panel.

Another had been fastened to the back of my slave collar. I wasn’t alone. Prisoners of many different species lined the three sides of the chamber. A few were unconscious, the rest awake, all staring directly at me.

“How long have I been out?” Sounds of distress and despair erupted around me. I repeated the question to the prisoner closest to me. He didn’t respond. No headgear. “Does anyone understand me?”

“I do,” a listless, feminine voice said. “Two hours. Perhaps a little longer.” I craned my head over and saw a League Ensign’s tunic. A humanoid female was shackled three prisoners down from me. Dark fluid made matted patches in her pale hair, and her face was distorted by a dozen oddly shaped lumps.

I didn’t recognize her species, but at least she spoke my language. “Were you on the Perpetua?”

“No. The Stephenson.” The thin, weary-looking female rested her bulbous head against the transparent wall. “Why are you here? I thought you were an ally of the beasts.”

“No, I’m not. I never was.”

Her lips spread into a cynical grimace. “You will be now.”

“Not me.” I tested the strength of the straps. I wasn’t going anywhere.

The Ensign closed her three eyes. “You’ll do anything they want, Terran. It won’t get you out of here, but you’ll beg them to do it.”

Before I could find out more, the chamber door panel slid open and SrrokVar entered, along with three guards. He pointed to me, the female Ensign, and the emaciated figure of a badly injured humanoid. “Bring these three.”

The League female cringed. The other being was too far gone to offer more than a low whimper.

I lifted my gaze to SrrokVar’s, and saw the avid interest glowing there.

I’d seen that look before. It made me want to empty my stomach on his footgear. “You don’t need them. Take me.”

“Your observations will prove instructional,” he said. “Perhaps after the trials, you can offer more enlightened opinions on the methods I employ.”

I really was going to vomit. “I don’t need to see you in action, thanks.” The guard had to carry the injured humanoid, but the League Ensign fought them. In the end, they resorted to dragging her by the arms down the corridor. I walked behind them without protest. Watching for a chance to escape allowed me to focus on something besides the coming horrors.

Only there were no chances.

“Doctor, if you will resume your position there”- SrrokVar pointed to the metal chair I’d sat in before-“I can begin the latest test trials.”

He actually expected me to seat myself and calmly observe this sickening abomination. “No. Put them back. I can be your test subject for today.”

“You are.”

The centurons shoved me in the chair, and one stayed to keep his rifle trained on me while SrrokVar briefly examined the first humanoid.

“Hardly worth the time or effort, in this case. Still, I prefer my trials to be comprehensive. Put him there.” He indicated the treadmill, which had twin support clamps to hold the sagging prisoner in place.

The half-dead alien’s body twitched spasmodically as he became aware of what was happening. That was worse than hearing him scream.

“I have information!” The League Ensign clawed at SrrokVar’s gear with a desperate hand as the guards lugged her over to one of the traction rigs. “Good information-you’ll be pleased this time, I promise. Please, please, don’t do this to me again.”

My teeth sank into my lower lip as I turned my head away. I couldn’t watch her, couldn’t be a witness to this. Not like this. Not helpless. “Lord SrrokVar, release these prisoners, and I’ll jump through whatever hoops you want me to. I swear I will. Just let them go.”

“In contrast, this species is most resilient.” SrrokVar said, as if he hadn’t heard me. He even patted the Ensign’s head with absent affection. “Today we will thoroughly test her structural limitations.” He was going to tear her apart. “You’re insane!”

As the centurons forced the now sobbing League female’s limbs into restraint cuffs, it distracted the one watching me. I gripped the chair’s cold plasteel arms and searched the immediate area for anything I could use as a weapon. The only thing within reach was a data pad, sitting near me on a utility tray. I took it and tucked it under my arm.

“Observe, Doctor.” SrrokVar activated the treadmill and placed a monitor patch on the heaving chest of the stumbling humanoid male. He motioned to one of the guards, who positioned himself behind the male. “Fracture one of his lower appendages.”

The guard swung one of his limbs back. I was halfway to the treadmill before I heard the whipping sound and subsequent bone shatter.

“No!” Let them shoot me. “Stop!”

SrrokVar barred my path with his bulk. “You must not interfere with my test subjects, Doctor.

All I require now is your clinical observation.”

“Get out of my way.” I tried to go around him, but he was bigger and faster. The Ensign’s shrieks increased in intensity as the traction rig gears whined. I saw that counterweights had been programmed to pull her body in four different directions. “You can’t do this to them!”

“I’m a scientist.” SrrokVar folded two limbs across his broad chest. “Surely you can appreciate how valuable the knowledge I gain is for the Faction. Now, if you’ll observe the Unohew male, he manages to support his entire body weight on a single appendage. Quite well, as it happens. However, his species has no natural endorphins, which creates-”

I jammed the corner of the data pad into one of SrrokVar’s eyes, darted around him and saw the humanoid male’s unconscious body being dragged backward by the treadmill track. I lunged for the control panel to the traction rig, and managed to slam my fists into the keypad before the first pulse burst over my back.

SrrokVar had me removed to the general holding cell, and left me there for an undeterminable amount of time. The Unohew male never returned, and the newly battered League female sat curled over and wept incoherently.

I was furious. Sick. Frantic to find a way to prevent this animal imitating a physician from continuing his revolting work. I wasn’t going to sit there, stare at my footgear, and wonder how long it would take to die, like the others.

No, I had to stop this madness. But how?

The sight of two new prisoners being brought in snared my attention, especially when SrrokVar directed the centurons to manacle each on either side of me.

Wonlee-and Gael Kelly.

“Up your swiss, you caffler,” the Terran said as he fought the claws restraining him. Once the Hsktskt had departed, the rage faded from his narrow face and concerned green eyes met mine. “How’s the form, dote?”

The ache in my back was nothing compared to the vile taste in my mouth. What was SrrokVar using on me? “The form hurts, Irishman. How did you two get thrown in here?” Wonlee’s spines grated against the restraints as he tested them. “Someone informed the beasts of our escape attempt.”

“The Lieutenant here and I tried to do a flit to the surface. Snared rapid, we were,” Gael said.

“Scabby thicks were already there, by God, waiting for us.” He shook his head sadly. “And after I warned your hardchaw friend here to whist-”

“I had to tell my comrades, in the event we failed.” Won’s clawed feet tapped an impatient rhythm against the quasi-quartz floor. “They wouldn’t betray us.”

“Someone did, boyo.” Gael banged his head back against the wall. “This place makes me want to bolt. What manner of mortaller are they inflicting on these poor knackers?” I wasn’t looking forward to telling him. For a moment, I closed my eyes and tried to think. Did Reever know I was here? Would he even care? “The one in charge is called SrrokVar. He’s torturing slaves and calling it research.”

Wonlee made a strangled sound of frustration. “How do we get out of here?” I watched as guards reappeared and one of them came toward me. My stomach solidified into a cold, clenched knot as my restraints were released. “I wish I knew.” Most of the drugs in my system wore off over the next hours as SrrokVar conducted his first series of tolerance tests on me.

The tests appeared deceptively mild at first. The Hsktskt compelled me to run the treadmill at various speeds, then stand in a tiny envirodome while the internal temperature went from arid to freezing.

Uncomfortable, but not painful. Not until the guards removed the bonesetter and strapped my wrists into two small rings suspended from a grav-hoist. SrrokVar raised me a few feet off the floor, and my own weight put immediate, searing stress on my broken carpal bones.

“Tell me about the Aksellans, Doctor.”

“I’ve told you what I know.” I wouldn’t give him the satisfaction, I thought, sweat pouring down my face. “By the way, are we nearly done? I’m rather tired of hanging around.” SrrokVar looked up from his console. “Humor as a pain-management device, Doctor?”

“A nap”-I clenched my teeth against the strain- “works better.” He walked over and clamped two more restraints around my ankles. Apparently they were hooked up to some kind of winch, because they began pulling, and the rings around my wrists grew tighter. Something inside me made an audible pop. I screamed. Fresh pain expanded through my right leg.

“Discouraging, these fragile joints of yours,” SrrokVar said as he scanned the knee and hip that now throbbed in unison. They hurt more than my broken wrist-not that I was going to tell him that.

“Altogether very simple to dislocate.”

“Is… two… enough?”

“I’m not concerned with the number, Doctor.” He completed the scan and circled around me.

“How they heal, however, is of great interest to me.”

Knowing that didn’t make it easier to keep quiet. “You’re… a… maniac.” Blood welled from the inside of my cheek; I’d bitten through it trying not to shriek. Something else popped, and my vision narrowed abruptly. I’d pass out now, I thought, grateful for my body’s response to the unbearable abuse. My head sagged for a moment, then I choked as a splash of icy water hit me in the face.

“You will remain conscious, Doctor.”

“Don’t… think… so…”

“I have the proper stimulants, once dousing you fails to work.” I shut out his face and voice, and pulled back deep within myself. He could keep me awake and all my senses working, but my mind didn’t have to stay connected with them. The dark, hidden place I’d fallen into once before beckoned, and I rushed to it, grateful for the respite.

About time.

Maggie’s voice drifted from the edge of that safe abyss, and I halted, wary of what that meant.

Am I dead again?

The sound of a faint snort. Get your skinny backside in here, Joey. Pronto.

Eighteen years of obedience sent me hurtling into the nameless haven, and I tumbled down the long passage until I landed in the featureless blackness that held only the sense of the woman I’d thought of as my only mother.

Maggie?

You’re in big trouble, kiddo. C’mon, we’ve got some serious talking to do.

The last two times we’d done this, I’d landed in the tavern district back on Terra, then my own bedroom. So when colors and sounds bloomed around me to form my Medtech freshman anatomy class, I wasn’t exactly surprised.

What shocked me was seeing Maggie up in front of the empty classroom, instead of Professor Larson, who’d taught me to know and recognize every inch of the human body inside and out. She wore an educator’s tunic one size too small, and clattered over toward me on the high, thin-heeled footgear she’d always loved. The locket I’d given her for her last birthday gleamed around her neck.

“Things are not looking good for you, baby,” she said as she pulled an illegal cigarette out of her breast pocket and lit it by bending over one of the Bunsen units. She drew the smoke in and released it with a long, slow sigh before smiling at me. “I’m glad you found your way here, though.” I put the student pack I was carrying on the nearest table and sat down on a stool. My nose wrinkled. “Is this where I get to spend eternity? Back in Medtech, listening to Professor Larson recite the number of muscles in the maxillary region?”

Maggie coughed out a lungful of smoke, gave me an irritated glare, then stubbed out the cigarette. “Not according to the plan, Joey.”

“Oh? And exactly what is this plan?”

“For me to know, and you to find out.” She winked. “Now, let’s deal with the nasty situation at hand. How the hell did you end up with Dr. Mengele out there? Never mind, I already know. Time to make some tough choices, kiddo.”

I heard distant, agonized screaming and knew it was coming from me. Not in any hurry to get back to that, I crossed my legs and regarded my surrogate mother patiently. “Such as?”

“He’s going to find out he can’t kill you.” Maggie went over to the wall panel and activated the instructional display. A full Terran female anatomical chart appeared on the screen. “Look at all these weird names. Christ, how do you pronounce that one? And check the rest of this out. Who knew these people had all this junk packed under their skins?”

“Maggie.” I waited until I had her attention. “Why can’t he kill me?”

“Oh. Yeah.” She switched off the display and gave me another brilliant grin. “It’s the same reason those disgusting PIC burns keep healing up and disappearing.”

“My immune system.”

“You’ve got the motherlode when it comes to immune systems, baby. It’s what makes you immortal.”

“Immortal.” Well, I was hallucinating, what did I expect? “Cute, Maggie. Nothing is immortal.”

“You are. Think about it, Cherijo. Why didn’t you die on K-2? You contracted the core virus from the cat-fellow Karas. What about while you were on the Sunlace? You died twice on Tonetka’s table. That’s not even counting the times you overdosed, got burned, stopped your heart, and took all that radiation, remember?”

She’d told me before, during a dream I’d had on the Sunlace. You won’t die, baby. “So you’re saying I can’t die? Ever?”

“Nope.”

I sat in silence for long time. Then I asked her, “Does my fa- my creator know about this?”

“Sure. Joseph tried to kill you a couple of times himself.” Maggie shook her head sadly. “I kept telling him it was hopeless, but did he listen to me? Noooooo…”

“You didn’t try and stop him.” Why it didn’t anger me was a total mystery. I was too busy rearranging certain events over the last two years in an entirely new order. “I’d wondered how Joseph convinced the League to come after me when everything he’d done was illegal. He told them about this.”

“You’re his blueprint for everlasting life, Joey. Which brings us to our other problem-if the lizards do figure out you can’t be killed, that would be bad.”

Yes, it would. “So how do I get out of this?”

“Duncan is coming for you.” Maggie shook her head. “Late, of course-he’s just discovered you’ve been taken-but he’ll come. You do whatever he says, Cherijo.” I laughed. “I don’t think so.”

My former hired companion exploded with rage. “You want to let that animal out there torture you for weeks, months, years? Because that’s what will happen, Joey. He’ll keep you for as long as it takes to satisfy his curiosity-and that’s endless. You’d choose to live like that, just to spite the one man who can protect you?”

“Some protector. He’s a traitor and a liar. He sold me out, Maggie.”

“He’s all you got!”

Now it was my turn. “What about you? Aren’t you ever going to tell me the truth about all this?

Who I am? What did you and Joseph Grey Veil do to me?” I looked up at the screen, then back at her.

“You won’t even tell me who you are. Are you my mother? My real mother?”

“No, Joey. I’m not.” She went very still, and groped in her pocket for another cigarette. Her fingers remained hooked there, and for some reason my gaze stayed riveted to the sight. What was wrong with her hand?

Then I saw. Saw what I’d never seen in all the years we’d spent together. It made me jolt off the stool and back away. “No. It’s some kind of trick.”

With a sad smile she lifted her fingers-each with five articulated joints-to her face, and passed it over the care-worn, lined features. They smoothed out as her flesh took on an outlandish luminescence.

Red-tinted curls straightened and darkened to black. Both ears receded into flat slits on either side of her elongating skull. Her brown eyes narrowed and tilted up at the corners toward her brows, which disappeared beneath an thin band of sparkling gems that stretched across her forehead.

I’d never known anyone with such a serene, beautiful face. What I did know was this woman wasn’t human. She didn’t belong to any other species I’d ever encountered, either.

The Maggie I had grown up loving wasn’t dead. She’d never existed. As I processed that, an irrational fury surged through me. I’d loved my surrogate mother. She’d been the only part of my life on Terra that I could bear to remember. Now she’d taken that away from me.

“No tricks, Cherijo.” Her voice had transmuted from the familiar husky rasp to alien octaves. The sheer clarity made me cringe. It felt as though my head was stuck inside of a huge, multitonal chime as it rang. “This is who I am.”

“You pretended to be human? Why? What world are you from?” The questions rushed out of me in an irate succession. “Why did you come to Terra? Why did you get involved with me?”

“Duncan Reever is not your only protector. I waited centuries for your birth, Cherijo.” The terrible beauty of her voice deepened, and her features blurred back into the false visage of the woman who had stood back and let my creator try to kill me. “You have to go back now, Joey. He will come for you.”

“No.” I resisted the urge to move back into reality. “Whoever you are, you owe me some answers. I have to know more.”

“You will.”

SrrokVar must have injected me with enough stimulant to keep an entire squad of League troops awake and aware. After my abrupt and unwilling trip back into reality, I discovered my body was on the brink of systemic overload. Nerve cells sent ceaseless transmissions of the multiple afflictions I’d endured, and the pain pushed beyond anything I’d ever experienced. At the same time, my heart and blood pressure careened at levels that would have killed an ordinary human. Sweat and cold water coated every centimeter of my skin.

It hurt to blink, so talking only upped the ante. “Aren’t… you… finished… yet?” SrrokVar’s eyelids peeled back in evident astonishment. “Why, Doctor, welcome back. I was certain you had retreated for the duration. Yes, I’m quite finished for today.” He lowered me back to the floor, where I added to the various stains on the mottled surface as the centurons released my limbs. SrrokVar had them place my broken body onto one of the exam tables, where he efficiently dealt with each dislocated joint. There were twenty of them altogether, including two veterbrae in my lower spine.

“Your reactions were not as I expected in the high tolerance ranges.” The Hsktskt finished manipulating the last bone-my left femur back into the hip socket-and scanned me once more.

“According to my data, tissue inflammation should not set in immediately. I am quite sure you will be able to stand and walk without support.”

“Yipee.” I pushed my abused body from the table and landed on my feet. The floor seemed to rock under me for a moment as my violated joints screeched in protest. “We’ll have… to do this…

again… sometime.”

“After you’ve had time to think about the many variations I can use to gain information from you, we will.” SrrokVar gestured to the waiting centurons. “Take her back to the holding cell.”

“Disregard that order.”

I turned my head. Just as Maggie had predicted, Reever entered the central chamber, accompanied by more Hsktskt.

He wasn’t pleased. “Why have you requisitioned this Terran without my authorization, Lord SrrokVar?”

“I did not requisition her, OverMaster.” The Hsktskt set down his data pad with a distinct thump. “She was brought here to be interrogated over the disappearance of five slaves.” Colorless eyes narrowed under the bright lights as Reever studied me. “What have you learned?” Some protector he was.

“Nothing yet. You are familiar with my methods, HalaVar.” The Hsktskt scientist beckoned to his personal guards. “This will take some time. Remove her.”

“No.” Reever came at me and tugged me off to the side. “I will speak with her.” He knew. I clutched at him when my knees started to give out. Reever knew everything that was going on in here.

Agree with whatever I say, Cherijo, and I can free you.

What was he talking about? Free me? What about the others? I started to shake my head, but my neck was stiffening up and I could only turn it to one side. By then Reever was talking to the head monster again.

“I have spoken with the OverLord and have his permission to take this one as my mate. Under the circumstances, the unity ritual will have to be held at once.”

“What?” I gasped and staggered away from him.

“She does not display a great deal of enthusiasm, HalaVar.” SrrokVar crossed the space between us and placed his claws around my jaw. Some of what I felt must have shown on my face, for SrrokVar dipped his head close to mine. “Does the prospect of coupling with the OverMaster appeal to you, Doctor?”

I didn’t care what Maggie said, I wasn’t doing this. I’d rather take my chances and hope Noarr could find a way to free us. My eyes fell to the sidearm Reever wore. “No thanks… rather be… lab rat.”

“You will give your consent. Eventually.” The Hsktskt addressed Reever. “I’d prefer to continue my interrogation, but perhaps you’d allow a study of any resulting progeny. I believe the genetic enhancements would be somewhat diminished by the second generation, but a detailed analysis would still prove beneficial. Your species’ gestational period is three cycles, is it not?”

“Yes.” Reever tried to take hold of me, but the Hsktskt refused to turn me loose.

He had no problem with allowing the scaly sadist to experiment on a child. Not just any child.

Our child. Nausea surged through me. At that very moment, whatever residual feelings I had for Duncan Reever died a swift, miserable death. It had to end, now. Maybe I couldn’t die easily, but I could try. I could kill him, too. Maybe by doing so I’d save an unborn child from living hell.

Adrenaline poured into my veins as I made a grab for Reever’s weapon, and whipped it from his belt. “No more!” My hand shook as I raised it and fired directly at his chest.

The pulse sent Reever flying into the traction rig. Before I could shoot myself, a huge limb knocked me aside and the weapon went flying. I remained conscious as one of the centurons snatched me up and shook me like a rag doll. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Reever slowly getting to his feet.

Blood stained the front of his uniform, but he was alive, breathing, and staring at me with wide, colorless eyes.

I’d failed. I hadn’t killed anyone.

“Escort the OverMaster to the infirmary.” SrrokVar peered into my tear-filled eyes. “Attacking any member of the Faction requires an interval of discipline, Doctor.” To the centuron, he said, “Put her on the table.”

I didn’t care what he did to me. He could use the thresher or yank more bones apart. Maybe Maggie was wrong and I would die. Maybe I should start praying for that.

The sound of a beam activating made my blood run cold. I lifted my head and saw SrrokVar coming at me with the same kind of hand-laser FlatHead had used on me.

“Yes, the OverCenturon’s report was most expansive,” the Hsktskt said as he tore the front of my runic open. ”I will begin here, where the flesh is thinnest.“ Helplessly I tried to beg, but there wasn’t any air left in my lungs to carry the sounds.

Heat, burning into me. Pummeling hands ripping. Smoldering fabric tearing. No gloves on my hands. Black, charred tissue. White gleam of bone-SrrokVar etched something into my right breast, then forced an endotracheal tube into my throat when I wouldn’t breathe on my own. He took a moment to administer more stimulants, which prevented any hope of unconsciousness. The hand-laser’s beam trickled down my abdomen, melting through the layers of skin, branding a path from sternum to navel.

Whatever pain receptors I had were so overloaded that they no longer functioned. Fear seized control and for a long period I was only aware of the stench and the soft puffs of breath from the Hsktskt’s partially open jaws.

I realized dimly when it was over, when they took me from the table and stapled my limbs into some upright pylons just beyond the equipment. SrrokVar jabbered something, but I couldn’t make it out. I only roused briefly when I saw Gael and Wonlee dragged into the center chamber. I moaned something, tried to clear my head.

SrrokVar removed the tube and waited until I breathed naturally before speaking. “HalaVar will be displeased, I fear, unless I gain your willing confession. Tell me what happened to the Aksellans, and I will release you.”

“Drop… dead.”

“Begin with the Terran.”

He kept me awake and made me watch as he tortured my friend on the traction rig. Gael was tough, but even he couldn’t hold out against the merciless counterweights. In the end, he screamed and begged anyone to make it stop.

“Well, Doctor?”

Through Gael’s shouts of agony, I saw Wonlee staring at me, and the small shake of his head as they hooked him up to the grav-hoist.

I couldn’t do this anymore. Noarr, forgive me. “Y-y-y-yes, I’ll tell you everything.”

“Good.” He gestured to the guards to continue, then caught my incredulous gaze. “In the event you are considering deceiving me.”

It was harder to hurt the Lieutenant. SrrokVar marveled over the flexibility of his infrastructures as the hoist and rings jerked and pulled at his limbs. Won never made a sound, even when the splintered end of one arm bone pushed out through his spiny flesh.

“An amazing creature,” the Hsktskt said as the centurons hauled the two unconscious males from the chamber. “Now, give me the information I require.”

Tears streamed down my face as I opened my mouth to explain what we’d done.

“Lord SrrokVar.” A detachment of centurons surrounded me. “OverMaster HalaVar has directed we remove the Terran and place her in solitary confinement.” Despite SrrokVar’s protests, they took me from the crying chambers and through the main compound to the confinement area. I was lowered down into one of the pits, where I collapsed and stared at the hatch above me for hours.

This particular pit was even wider and deeper than the last one, but lit from below with a soft, diffused glow. No handy escape tunnel hatch to be found this time, either. One of the guards lowered food and water twice a day to me, but I hoarded half of every nonperishable, just in case they decided to forget about me again. One of the water containers served as an awkward, though welcome, waste receptacle.

Stimulants wear off eventually. In my case, it took three days. During the endless hours of forced wakefulness, I remained as still as I could and tried to rest. Tried to forget what I’d endured. And yet my eyes continued to return to the hatch, wondering when Reever or SrrokVar would send someone to take me back.

On the third day I finally threw off the last of the drugs, and slept. Faceless voices whispering wordless wounds of comfort filled my dreams.