Total pages in book: 69
Estimated words: 63580 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 318(@200wpm)___ 254(@250wpm)___ 212(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 63580 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 318(@200wpm)___ 254(@250wpm)___ 212(@300wpm)
They are right, but the notion of not following them all the way to the bitter end to reclaim my pet does not sit well with me. I cannot believe that she was taken so easily. Right behind my back, even as I thought I was defending her, I was losing her. The regret and guilt are terrible, and the memories of my captivity are coming back even stronger in her absence.
I notice now, for the first time, that my brothers are uncomfortable, and have been for some time. They have been making noises about supporting me, but I can tell that they would rather we stopped engaging this enemy so directly. Drak is the bravest of them to say what he has already said.
“It might be time to let her go,” Drak says. “It’s our job to monitor the universe. We have many missions to attend to beside the Datari Composite.”
“She is mine. My pet. My mate.”
There is a crackle as the communications come to life. They should not be able to function. The wires are still torn and askew, ripped through by my bloody clawed hands. There is only one entity capable of speaking through an unplugged set of speakers.
“Tasin, please report to the home realm with your crew.” Alara’s voice comes through. “It is a matter of urgency. I expect you immediately.”
The others show immediate signs of relief. I suppose I do not blame them. They are right that we are on the verge of being captured. If all four of us are taken, the DC will be able to take even more torturous measures. They will take us captive and they will take us apart, and they will perform travesties.
Drak and the others have already stepped back to our realm. I am alone on the ship for the moment. I know I won’t be coming back to this place. There is still blood on the floor from the slaughter of the invaders, wiped up hastily but not completely.
When I took my pet here, I thought I would be showing her the universe. I thought I could keep her safe at all and any costs. I was almost certain she would be forever safe. I’ve failed her so completely I can barely begin to contemplate it.
“Tasin.” Alara’s voice comes through the disembodied speakers again. “Home. Now.”
I draw in a deep breath, and I step through the veil. The home realm asserts itself around me. I find myself there bloodied and exhausted, standing before Alara. She is on her throne, and we are alone in the royal room.
She has made herself very much appealing. Her dress is made entirely of jewels that tinkle softly when they move. Her skin is quite visible through much of those beads and things, but I suppose it is decent enough. She could be entirely naked and I would not particularly care.
“Tasin, I know you have suffered, but behaving erratically by diving deep into enemy space with three of your brethren is not like you,” she says, running her fingers through her long locks in an indulgent way.
“Alara, they’ve taken my pet.”
“Oh, have they?” She twirls a lock of hair, then focuses her attention on me directly. “That’s fortunate. She was slowing you down, Tasin. She was a distraction, too. I have decided to issue an edict that no pets are to be allowed on warships.”
“I need your help to retrieve her.”
Alara frowns slightly at me, and as she replies, every sentence sounds more frustrated than the one before it.
“You know very well that this was ordained, Tasin. This is the way of things unfolding as it should. This is why we do not forge bonds with typical mortal species. This is why we do not have pets. She was always disposable. She is human. There is no purpose to her short, pathetic little life other than the losing of it.”
I don’t want the lecture, and holding my rage in as I suffer it does my constitution no good at all. When I respond, it is terse as well.
“We have been uniquely useless in this fight. We have allowed the Datari Composite to gain ground, and soon they may even have access to this realm. Is that what you want? To find yourself awash in brutal lizards? Because that is what will happen next. Today, we allow my pet to be taken from me. Tomorrow, they are here. Not at our door, but inside our homes. They are running roughshod through the most sacred places in the universe. They are destroying us, and replacing us.”
Alara laughs, and I catch a flash of something in her mind.
It is only brief, and it’s possible I imagined it, but I see her in a vivid tryst with the king of the Datari. His flickering lizard tongue working between her thighs, her back arched in ecstasy. The scene happens on the very throne she is sitting on now, and I realize that his scent is in this room. I thought it was the lizard blood on my boots that makes me smell it constantly. But it’s not blood. It’s an entirely different substance that is assaulting my nose.