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The end of the pain was like a knife chop. Clarity slammed my brain while my body, struggling to curl into a fetal position, tore against the restraints.
I sobbed. Tears and snot smeared my face. My skin was filthy with sweat and piss, and the room stank.
Off to my right was a smear of black and white. I blinked, trying to clear my vision and it resolved into the High Jerak. He was holding the kid in front of him, one of his long, boney hands gripping her shoulder.
I think I wailed in despair.
"She surrendered to me as soon as she witnessed your pain," he said. "But we shared a few additional moments so she could understand the situation. It is simple. If she is difficult, you will suffer. Everything goes so much better when everyone understands how things work."
A few moments? My arms and legs felt as if someone had tried to wrench them out of their sockets. A shudder ran over me.
Bastard! "Now you know I had nothing to do with taking her family—" I rasped.
The High Jerak cricked his head in that odd, jerky gesture again. "Captain Zant, this was not an interrogation. It was a lesson. There will be other times for questions." He straightened. "Enough with these distractions. Remove this filth and throw it in the silo. I will devote more time to it after we repulse this newest encroachment of its stinking kind into our territory."
The guards undid the restraints and hauled me to my feet.
I had totally failed. The Endar had the kid, along with a whole room—a whole world—of her telepathic people. The EA's bid to join the Whooex Trade Union would be the first step in its downfall and the Whooex Union of Stars would crumble under Endar manipulation. Awash in misery, I sagged between the guards.
"There is one last thing."
I looked up through blurred vision. The High Jerak held Liri, but now he had a claw poised at her throat, ready to pierce it.
Liri quaked in terror.
"No! Don't hurt her," I sobbed.
The display was not meant for me, however. "Block this Human and erase all its memories of you, back past your first encounter with it," he ordered her.
This was it. If she had selectively left my memory intact because I rescued her, I was about to lose it all. I would not remember why I was on this world—or why the Endar were torturing me. I stared at her, waiting for the moment when she disappeared from my sight and mind.
The kid closed her eyes and screwed up her face with effort.
I watched her, my heart thudding with fear and regret.
She opened one eye a crack and looked at me. The dismay that washed over her face told me what I suspected: she could not influence my mind.
Too late, I realized, for the sake of Humankind, I should've simply looked away and pretended to be confused, but the shock of confirming she really couldn't affect me had dulled my response.
"Do not play with your life! Block her and erase her memories," the High Jerak repeated. His claw pressed her neck and a bead of blood welled.
"No!" My cry was barely a whisper from my raw throat.
The child scrunched up her face in a massive effort.
My attempt to blank my expression was too slow.
"I said erase it!" Seok snarled. His fingers twitched as if, regardless of her value, he would lose control in his fury and tear her throat out.
"She can't block me," I choked out.
"That is impossible!" he hissed.
Adrenalin born of fear for the kid's life gave me the strength to get my feet under me. I stood between the guards, not daring to breathe, terrified his gleaming lacquer claw would plunge and rip her neck.
Instead, he gave a piercing shriek of rage and flung her at me. "You have ruined her!"
A small kid striking a spacer body at any speed is not a pleasant feeling. I slid from the guards' grip and we both went to the floor. I did manage to keep her head from smacking the surface with my ribs, however.
"How can this be?" the High Jerak raged. "She can mindwipe any species we tested!"
The Endar guards rattled, but they made no attempt to answer him or to pick us up.
Gasping for air, I struggled to my feet and pulled the kid up to stand with me. She wrapped her arms around my waist and held on tight.
He paused in his rant to glare at Liri. "We will review what has happened here. If you have deceived me, your people will suffer. Do you understand?"
I felt the movement of her head bumping my lower ribs as she nodded frantically. Her whole body trembled.
He shifted his attention to me. "Human filth! The ndu is only the beginning of your pain. We will take you apart cell by cell to find the reason she cannot affect you. If what happened here is real we will erect a memorial to honor your role in exposing a flaw in our plan."
He turned, reached into a drawer, and pulled something from it. When he turned back, he had a small triangular metal device suspended on a metal circlet sitting in the middle of his forehead. "Senior, approach," he spat.
One of the guards stepped toward him. The High Jerak dropped something into his hand. "Put these on, both of you. It will enable you to see the Minder and block any attempt to influence your brain."
Well, that answered that question...
The guard slipped a similar circlet on his head and carried the other back to his companion.
"You will not remove those under any circumstance unless I order it. As of this moment, your duties are reassigned. You report solely to me. I do not need to remind you of the level of security that entails." He paused, then stepped forward to stand in front of us. Bending, he lifted a hand as if to caress Liri's small face. A claw plunged and sliced her flesh from her cheekbone to her jaw.
She jerked with shock, but made no sound as blood welled.
I made up for her silence with a whimper of outrage.
The Endar leader ignored us both as he straightened to look at his guards. "Observe the mark. You are ordered to kill this Minder if you see it anywhere outside the silo unless I have ordered you to bring it to me."
He looked at the kid as the guards peeled her off me. "You know what this is." He gestured at the triangle with his bloody nail. "You cannot blind them to your presence now. You will remain silent and do as you are told. If you attempt to block Endar sight or memory again, you will die. Do you understand me?"
He turned away, not waiting for her response. "I have pressing matters to attend. Take them away. One of you will stay on guard outside the silo at all times. The other will return here for further instructions. Speak to no one in between."
As their spindly fingers grasped our arms, I wondered if he actually intended to reassign the guards' duties, or if they were also facing death for what they had witnessed here.
The door behind us slid open and a white-robed figure swept into the room.
One of the guards stretched his free arm to block its forward momentum.
"What happens here?" the being demanded as it came to a stop.
The High Jerak spun back, the shading on his face going dark gray. "I said not your concern! Return to your station," he snapped.
Some things are so unexpected that they can jerk you back from the edge of utter collapse. This being—he had to be Makima—had spoken in Union Basic! The other surprise was his physical appearance. He was beautiful, with Liri's lovely features matured to a fine elegance. On second look, however, the warmth and animation that lit up the kid were missing.
The Makima certainly didn't act as if he considered himself subservient to anyone in the room. He drew his body straight, putting him maybe five centimeters short of my height, and set his shoulders back. He looked at the kid. I sensed there was a flash of information exchanged between them.
"This is Phantom Child," he said, glaring at Seok. "Never asked to remove from Zam Fiella. Why is here? Explain child's state!"
The High Jerak gestured at me. "This being did," he lied.
I managed to summon a choking sound of denial.
The Makima's brown eyes swept over me again. They narrowed in curiosity. "Look, see wild animal." His fine features wrinkled with distaste.
Yeah, I stank so bad I was aware of it, even beyond the shock that was trying to shut my system down.
"I see before," he continued. "Not Makima. What are you?"
"Human," I said.
"Is animal, Threadmaster," the High Jerak spoke over me.
The Makima looked at him.
"I said return to station!" Seok snapped.
Unbridled contempt swept the Makima's face, turning it cold and malicious.
I closed my eyes, expecting the Endar to lunge forward and snip off his head right there, but the High Jerak did not react.
Did he even recognize the expression on the face of this being he called Threadmaster, who he obviously deemed a minion?
"And what of child?" the man persisted.
"Child damaged. Primacy must evaluate," the High Jerak said. "Will tell you all in future."
But the Makima male had dismissed Seok from his attention, turning to the kid. He looked at her without sympathy or consolation.
"You speak aloud!" The High Jerak ordered.
"Remember Sameirat," the Threadmaster said to her in a low voice.
She swallowed hard and gave a single nod.
"Enough with the gibberish!" The High Jerak tone rose. "Return to your station immediately!"
The cold, speculative look the Threadmaster gave me as he turned and swept out of the High Jerak's chamber sent a stab of fear straight into the seething mass that roiled inside me.
That kind of beauty was a dangerous thing. Would Humans recognize that it was not to be touched?
I stared down at the purple stain on the back of my hand and shivered.