Jazon

An Omnes Videntes Novel

By Wendie Nordgren

Copyright © 2017 by Wendie Nordgren

www.wendienordgren.com

All rights reserved.

This book is a work of fiction. The names, places, and events are fictional and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, or actual events is entirely coincidental.

Cover Design by Victoria Cooper Art

Also by Wendie Nordgren

The Space Merchants Book One

The Space Merchants of Arachne Book Two

The Parvac Emperor’s Daughter Book Three

Omnes Videntes Book Four

The Spider Queen Book Five

Xavier

Clue and The Shrine of the Widowed Bride Book One

Clue and the Sea Dragon Book Two

Table of Contents

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fifteen

Chapter One

The debriefing had continued throughout the morning. During his mission, Xavier had discovered several new leads, eliminated a threat to the Empire’s peace, and found himself a cute little wife, if not a dangerous one. Jazon shared a telepathic grin with his pod brother, Walter. He, Zared, Zeth, and Walter had been created in the same batch and grown within the same amniotic chamber. The bonds between them were strong. However, the telepathic and empathic bonds between all of the surviving Laconian hybrid brothers inextricably tied them to one another.

They had been created in a lab by their father, Dr. Stanley Crispus. His mind had broken after his wife’s suicide and had led to their taboo existences. Nora Crispus hadn’t been able to heal her heart after the miscarriages she had suffered, and Stanley had made it his life’s mission to successfully breed their two races. There was a reason the Laconian races of Eriopis and Enyo didn’t mix. Telepathic Eriopis and empathic Enyos who managed to reproduce created doomed offspring.

Eriopis males formed telepathic bonds with their wives for mental stability in exchange for addictive physical intimacy. Enyo males bonded with female clan members or wives to give them peace from their violent emotions. Enyo males had adapted and evolved to survive in harsh frozen climates and were fiercely protective of their females. Mentally and emotionally, such combined offspring, without anchors, often succumbed to insanity.

Two of Jazon’s brothers had found anchors which, through their tight bonds, stabilized the rest of them to one degree or another. Zared’s wife had been experimented on by Stanley Crispus shortly after her birth. The stimulation of her supramarginal gyrus had strengthened her empathic senses to the extent that she had been able to bind Zared to her empathically. With him, she had taken all of the rest of them, and they had benefited from it. They no longer needed hours of meditation each day to be able to function. However, without intensive physical training each day, he and his brothers were dangerously aggressive.

Now, Xavier had come home with a wife. Xavier was all professional courtesy to Inquisitor Eli Beck and Captain Kaoti Aegisthus as he gave his mission statement. However, Jazon and Walter made eye contact and then grinned. Trapped in the debriefing, Xavier forced himself to go over every detail and answer each question with meticulous care. All the while, he battled thoughts of Sparrow’s soft skin and small white breasts.

If Sparrow and Teagan knew the extent of the telepathic connections shared by the hybrid brothers, they would be mortified. A man couldn’t always be guarded against his brother’s erotic thoughts.

“The threat of a thermo-resonator missile attack is no longer at the apex of our militaristic concerns. With both the supplier and buyer of the missiles in Galaxic Militia custody, and the weapons expert rescued, we can move onto other concerns. Have you spoken to Lady Ponidi about creating for the Empire her frisson dampeners as safeguards against any remaining missiles?” Eli asked.

“I have,” Xavier answered.

Eli’s cold, dark eyes peered back at him waiting for elaboration.

“Sparrow will design and create as many of the stabilizers as you want, but her research facility needs and the materials she would require are rather extensive. I have never even heard of some of the necessary machines.”

“We will put the correct individuals into contact with her. Now, let us move onto other matters. Felix Jiri remains at large. The clone that murdered General Luca Braga has been executed, and through the Princess Probus, Zared killed a second clone. Our orders are to discover who is creating these clones, capture the scientist, and bring him or her into custody for questioning. We must learn how many of these clones have been created.” Eli paused to allow his words to sink in. “The clones must be questioned and destroyed.” The Inquisitor made eye contact with each of them.

The man had often chilled Jazon’s blood. Eli Beck was ruthless and on several occasions, had brutally tortured and executed criminals to protect the Imperial family. Emperor Probus had assigned Eli to protect and serve his only child for that very reason. Eli’s loyalty to Teagan was absolute, but the man’s fantasies for what he would do to Inquisitor Drex Licinius should Teagan tire of the man were vile.

Xavier’s thoughts had returned to Sparrow and the way she felt around his cock. His errant thoughts sent Zared’s thoughts about Teagan down a similar path.

“I’ll go,” Jazon volunteered.

“The rest of you are dismissed,” Eli said.

While his brothers filed out of the room, Jazon studied his console where the cumulative data of the inquisitors’ investigations into the clones appeared. His brothers knew why he had volunteered. Dreams of the persona that Teagan had adopted on their last mission, Sara Eos, continued to plague him. There was nothing worse that Jazon had ever experienced than suffering from the unrequited love of an imaginary female.

Later that evening, he had devised his preliminary mission plan. He wasn’t going to say goodbye to Teagan. It would just make her cry. For a time, he had hoped that she might take him as a husband as well. However, when Zared had almost been lost to them, and his consciousness had been trapped in a comatose state, Jazon had realized that he wasn’t in love with Teagan. He loved her, but it was the same platonic love that she felt for him. The realization had come like a cold, wet slap.

Jazon needed some time and distance. This mission was just what he needed. He put in a request for a small merchant ship and a crew. His mission would be taking him to the Laconian Sector.

Chapter Two

Looking at the two of them made her feel sick. Her father, who had been her entire world, had died only four months ago. While her pain had gotten more manageable, her anger and resentment had taken some of her pain to fuel themselves. Duran Jarreau had begun his courtship of her mother at her father’s funeral. They had married earlier in the week. She had tried to convince herself to be grateful that Duran had saved her mother from the bottomless abyss of pain in which she had begun to sink.

However, when she had caught the man looking at her legs with lust while her mother’s back had been turned, she had gone to her mother with her fears. An angry, heated argument had ensued. Now, as a result, she felt as though both of her parents were lost to her. Her father’s death had killed their family.

A nanny had been hired to raise her younger brothers. They were handling things far better than she was. It was mostly due to the fact that as their new patriarch, Duran had formed telepathic bonds with her brothers. With their father gone, they had need the mental stability that Duran provided. She had refused. Duran was taking her mother on a two-week honeymoon to Sinope.

She looked around at her new room and wiped away her tears. Duran had sold their family home and moved them into his mansion. The swimming pool and extensive grounds had enticed her brothers, but for her it had been a cruelty. Most of her memories of her father had been in that house.

“Behave while we’re gone and don’t exceed your daily budget,” her mother said. Her mother made no attempt to hug or kiss her goodbye.

Duran must have nudged her mother’s mind and furthered the distance between the two of them. At least he hadn’t killed her affection for her sons. The boys looked more like their mother than their father. She watched through the window as Duran’s private shuttle lifted off to take them to the land port.

She answered her vid-screen when it pinged.

Strass’ solid black eyes and unruly black hair filled her screen. “I heard your parents are leaving town. Are you finally ready to have some fun?”

Strass had been her boyfriend on and off for the past year and a half at the academy. They had met in an oceanography class. He had shown an interest in her after learning who her father was and had been attentive and affectionate with her to make a good impression on him. Being awarded a chance to serve as one of her father’s research assistants had been her most attractive feature to Strass. He had always had other girlfriends. That didn’t bother her. It was expected in their society. She had gotten along with a few of the other girls, but giving Strass her understanding and her virginity hadn’t been enough to keep him around after her father had died. She was no longer of benefit to his career plans. Had her father lived and decided to give them another mother, not that he would have tolerated another female distracting him from his work, she would have accepted it. However, hearing Strass refer to Duran as one of her parents turned what feelings she still had for him to dust.

“No, I’m on my period. Sorry,” she said with a shrug.

Obviously disappointed that sex wasn’t anywhere in his immediate future with her, Strass made a little small talk before ending their conversation. He’d find some other female or a couple of females with whom to slake his lust. Glad his telepathy was as weak as any feelings he might have ever had for her, she changed into a swim dress and went out to the pool.

Some light remained on Aurilius. She hadn’t joined her brothers for dinner with their new nanny, Angelica. The woman had come with an impeccable resume, but she worked for Duran and answered to him. She wasn’t sure if Angelica was truly there to care for her brothers, or if it was just an act to throw her off as she spied on them for Duran. Tracy stayed in the pool until Angelica came out and reported to her that her brothers were asleep.

“If there is nothing you need, Miss Tracy, I will retire to my room for the night.”

Tracy observed the woman. It wasn’t fair of her to be unkind to Angelica. “Thank you. I’ll see you tomorrow,” Tracy responded.

Angelica curtsied to her and left. Angelica was plain as far as Laconian women went. It was why she was a servant and not a mistress. In the beauty department, high standards were set for Laconian women. Laconian women outnumbered Laconian males, and competition for males was fierce. Tracy closed her eyes and fantasized about marrying a human male, maybe from the Galaxic Militia. He would be faithful only to her and look at her with worshipful eyes. Human males were enamored of Laconian females. The only drawback to taking one as a husband was that children of such unions were weak telepaths. The squeaking of Megachiroptera as they flew overhead in search of food pulled her from her musings.

What kind of life did she want for herself? Did she want to emulate her mother and try to become one of Strass’ future wives, always coming in as second or third in his life? Or, did she want to give up on the idea of marriage and devote her life to her own scientific pursuits in honor of her father’s memory?

“I’m not staying here. I need to be gone before they get back.”

She went inside, dried off, and changed. Activating her vid-screen, she navigated to the academy’s site. With her father’s encouragement, she had graduated with a degree in oceanography. Dr. Heintz had been grooming his daughter to take over his research on Asteroidea, sea star, regeneration. There were several research assistant positions available on Epopeus for graduate credit, and she intended to secure one. Desperate to leave her mother, Duran, and Strass behind, Tracy began to fill out the first application.

In order to complete one of the sections, she needed her family’s census code which had changed with her mother’s marriage to Duran Jarreau. He was now their patriarch. Tracy got up and went to his office to find it. She flipped through a few folders on his desk to no avail before moving on to search the drawers. The last thing she wanted to do was call the pervert and ask him for the code. She didn’t even want them to know what she was doing until it was too late.

Under some financial plasti-forms, she found something that never should have been in Duran’s desk. It was one of her father’s vid-pads. Tracy pulled it out from under the pile of documents and held it to her chest. Her heart constricted with pain and longing for her father. What was Duran doing with this? Like every scientist at the academy, her father’s work and research belonged to the facility so that it could be continued. Tracy powered on the vid-pad.

She closed her eyes on her tears that the sound of his voice evoked. He was recording his findings on the Asteroidea’s ability to order particular stem cells to differentiate in order to regenerate an amputated limb. In the recording, he was describing the sea star’s ability to take inventory of its body’s cellular imbalances, and how it could order what replacements it needed to regain equilibrium. It had the ability to create its own cellular inventory and could release chemical commands much like humanoid pituitary glands.

A gate in her mind rushed open and swept her away in a memory.

“Never! It is an abomination! I will not contribute my research to the pursuit of such a travesty of science. The entire concept is one that I find repugnant and against the order of creation. Keep your credits! My goal is pure research. No, my family does just fine on my earnings. No, I will not reconsider. You know where you can put your credits, Jarreau.” Her father had ended the call and met her wide-eyed stare with a furious stare of his own. “One lesson I hope you will learn from me is not to allow your research to be corrupted for a profit. It sickens me what some biological research facilities want to attempt. If nature didn’t create it….”

“It shouldn’t be,” Tracy had finished for him.

Her father was of the belief that if left alone, biological systems evolved best according to their own designs. He studied life. He didn’t tamper with it. Unfortunately, he had stumbled across something profitable in his research. Her father had been arguing with Jarreau, her new stepfather, months before his death. Tracy’s heart thudded in her chest. This was all too convenient. The most logical conclusion was that Jarreau had killed her father, making it look natural, and had married her mother to get his hands on her father’s research. The first thing Duran had done was to pack up their family home, sell it, and move them into his mansion. All of her father’s things had been placed in storage, supposedly for his children to have one day.

Tracy had kept something of her father’s. She put the vid-pad and everything else back just as she had found it. The thick, tan carpet squished softly under her feet on her way back to her room. Duran must have had all of her father’s things put into storage so none of them would notice if any of his things were missing, like his notes and ideas that came to him randomly which he had recorded to explore later. Had she been living, along with her brothers, with their father’s murderer? Had Duran blocked that memory from her mind?

Tracy hadn’t been able to part with what her father had always referred to as his lucky writing stylus. He had been able to write his ideas down on his vid-pad much faster than he had been able to type. Tracy had spent several hours searching for his stylus on more occasions than she could remember which had given them lots of reasons to laugh. Eventually, Tracy had programmed the stylus and the most recent data entries that he had made with it to trace signals back to each other. It had worked to save his work and ping on her vid-screen where his stylus had ended up.

More than once, his stylus had been on the academy’s floor in the men’s restroom. She shook her head at the memory. Now, she took the stylus from her jewelry box and closed the application page on which she had been working. Pulling up the old program made her feel close to her father once again. The ping on the map that appeared wasn’t at the storage facility. The ping for her father’s notes was out in the middle of nowhere.

Tracy secured the stylus to a lanyard and put it around her neck. She put her black, shoulder-length hair into a ponytail and dressed in dark serviceable clothing appropriate for field research. Arming herself with a sonic blaster, she slipped her satchel’s strap over her head, put her vid-screen inside of it, and left the house via the door to the pool. She waited until the security drone had flown to the front of the house before running full-speed at the back stone wall where she scaled up and over it. At least her former nightly escapades with Strass had been good for something.

On the street, Tracy waved at a friend who drove past going in the opposite direction. Luckily, Jaimie turned around. “What are you doing out so late this evening,” Jaimie asked. “Going cock riding?”

Tracy walked to the door and got inside of her friend’s transport. “No, I want to collect some samples.”

“That’s better than collecting carpet burns.”

“Rough night?” Tracy asked.

“Yes, it was great,” Jaimie said with a naughty smile and a laugh. “He made me an offer, and I accepted. He’s going to speak to my….” There was an awkward silence. “I’m sorry, Tracy,” she whispered.

“Don’t do that. Okay? You can say he’s speaking to your father without me freaking out. I’m happy for you. Once you’re married, I can use you and your new clout. I’ll put you on my applications as a personal reference.”

“What applications?” Jaimie asked worriedly.

“I’ve decided that I want to be a research assistant on Epopeus. I don’t want to get married.”

“Go for it, as long as I can visit.”

“Anytime. Hey, drive me to the edge of Fig Forest.”

“That’s creepy.”

Thinking fast, Tracy came up with an excuse. “Yes, but I’m searching for a particular pond-growing amoeba.” Tracy smiled at her beautiful, well-manicured friend.

“Do you want me to wait?”

“No, I want to take my time and have fun. After all, my parents are off world.”

Jaimie said, “You sure do know how to party.”

Tracy shrugged and listened to everything Jaimie’s future husband had promised her in his proposed marriage contract. Honestly, she was grateful for the distraction. When Jaimie pulled over to the side of the road where Tracy indicated, she asked, “Are you sure about this? It’s so dark, and it’s late. The bats are out.”

“Jaimie, I’ll be fine. Don’t worry. I have my vid-screen and a sonic blaster.”

“Alright. Ting me if you need me.”

“I will. Again, congratulations!”

Tracy got out of her friend’s transport and watched as she turned around to drive back to the affluent neighborhood from which they had come. Jaimie’s father was incredibly wealthy, and she and her mothers and brothers enjoyed spending that wealth. As the only daughter, Jaimie had been lavished with attention and affection. That had been Tracy until a few months ago. She owed it to her father to discover the truth. She stepped from the side of the road and into the grass. Then, she allowed her eyes a moment to adjust before stepping between the wild branches of fig trees and away from the road.

Of all of the wild forests she had seen on Aurilius, this had always been the one she considered to be the most beautiful. It had been left alone for centuries to thrive and replenish itself. The weak trees died and were replaced by stronger saplings that grew up through their decomposition. The fig forest was a living example of what her father had believed. He had not approved of genetically modified plants or animals and had shared that belief with most of the scientific community.

Carefully, Tracy walked for miles through the dark forest. Most of the fig leaves were the size of bath towels. The smell of ripe figs and rich soil filled the air. Occasionally, she passed by wild blueberry bushes where families of shrews searched for food. Not wanting sticky fingers, she left all of the ripening fruit to the bats and other small rodents that were active in the night. The animals avoided her while she followed the signal she received from her father’s last notes.

Ahead, she saw a small amount of land that had been cleared around a grey cement building. A covered two-seater roller was parked outside. While she hadn’t even realized anything was located all of the way out in the middle of the forest, someone else did and had either stayed late or didn’t intend to leave. Indecisive about what to do, Tracy waited in the dark for over an hour before a man left the building.

With her vid-screen, Tracy zoomed in and recorded him as he typed in a numerical code, 31215145, to lock the door. She waited another twenty minutes after he had driven off before sneaking up to the door and trying to code. Glancing around, she couldn’t find any visible signs of security. Obviously, somebody didn’t want this place pinging on any type of system. The barest illumination allowed her to see the data pad attached beside the door in the alcove. Silently, it slid open.

Cautiously walking inside of the dark entry, she noticed another data pad on the other side of the door. Quickly, she reentered the code, and the door closed. A faint light grew brighter in increments allowing her eyes time to adjust. She was relieved that she had known what to expect with the door. While simple, the same type of security had been used effectively for centuries for shelters such as this. The shelters had been constructed underground and were well-hidden in case of alien attacks. Tracy wondered to which wealthy family this one belonged.

Clutching her vid-screen, she continued to follow the small blip on her screen that was symbolic of her father’s last notes. In the shelter, codes were no longer needed. Doors slid open when she walked too close to them. The first door to frighten her opened onto a breakroom. The door slid closed again as she passed it and climbed down to another level.

Tracy swallowed the saliva that had filled her mouth. It was the precursor to the nausea that now threatened to make her sick. This level was open but partitioned into different research sections with plasti-glass walls. To her left, clear, fluid-filled containers held humanoid arms at various stages of growth. On legs that shook with the strength of her revulsion, she forced herself to walk closer and read the vid-labels beneath each one. The arms had been cloned.

“What horror is this?”

Sickened, Tracy backed away, careful not to touch any of it. She left the section and jogged to the back-right corner of the lab where she found a desk. There she found her father’s data pad. It had been plugged into a console unlike anything she had ever seen. The technology seemed alien and far more advanced than anything at the academy. Tracy unplugged her father’s vid-pad, powered it off, and put it in her satchel along with her own vid-screen. She couldn’t go home. Duran would see into her mind. Then, he would know that she had discovered that he had killed her father and stolen his research and his family.

Just as she turned to leave, her hair stood on end as the charged buzz of a blaster sounded directly behind her head. “Get your hands where I can see them,” a deep male voice ordered.

Tracy couldn’t stop the trembling of her hands. Of course, there had been a guard. She silently admonished herself. Roughly, her wrists were seized and secured behind her back. The man moved around to face her, and her fears redoubled. It was worse than anything she ever could have imagined. She could feel the wrongness emanating from within him. In this lab, they had done something far more terrifying than cloning humanoid tissues. Tracy backed away, stumbled, and fell. She screamed as it reached for her. Then, everything went black, sound feeling, and consciousness abandoned her.

Chapter Three

Jazon had prepared for his mission for a week during the journey to Aurilius. The two inquisitors serving as his crew also served under Eli Beck. The two Parvac soldiers were eager to assist in the investigation of Felix Jiri’s clones. Felix, who had been disowned by House Jiri, had become the most reviled male in the history of the Parvac Empire. Jazon needed to stop associating the name Jiri with the male. House Jiri had renounced all familial ties with him. Had Felix been a Laconian, there could have been no worse punishment for him. Yukihyo, Teagan’s first husband, would know. He had managed to survive after having his empathic bonds severed. Jazon knew that in Yukihyo’s place, he would have put a blaster barrel in his mouth and ended it. Not even the thought of revenge would have been enough to save him.

Even with the stability he got through his bonds with his brothers and their wives, Jazon had been struggling lately. His feelings for Teagan had left him raw. One moment, he had believed himself to be in love with the gorgeous blonde. In the next, Sara Eos, the identity she had assumed for a mission, had captivated and enthralled him with her exotic sexuality. He continued to awaken painfully hard from his dreams of her. However, in the instant when the missile had struck Zared, and he and his brothers had feared Zared was lost to them, clarity had ensued.

The brilliant but torturous love he had felt for Teagan had been phantom love, residual traces of the love Teagan and Zared shared. Once it had vanished, he was left with his own love, and it was tender and sweet. His true feelings for Teagan were very similar to the ones he felt for her children, protective, grateful, and pure. He wasn’t in love with her. He had never been in love with anyone.

Jazon had used his time away from Parvac to study for his mission, train, and spar with a virtual opponent. By identifying and tracking a small delivery of a medical grade cell proliferation serum to a private entity on Aurilius, Jazon had been able to narrow his search. At great expense, a tracking agent had been added into the next shipment of the serum which had led him to the underground lab. He pondered how such brilliant scientists could be so stupid.

He had bypassed the simple door code that had numerically spelled out the word clone based upon the human alphabet. He had snickered to himself at that stupidity alone. However, with that human code, a clear path led back to Felix’s Earth Loyalists. Inside the lab, the idiot female scientist hadn’t even had any guards for him to kill. Jazon felt disgruntled and cheated by the entire operation. Where was the challenge? Where was the danger?

He stood across from her confinement cell onboard his ship and waited for her to snap out of the sleep he had sent her into. Captain Agata had taken them from Aurilius’ surface and set their course for Epopeus. Jazon and his crew were supposed to give the impression that they were merchants, so they were adhering to a standard star route for the duration of their investigation. Jazon sighed. He had only just returned to the Laconian Sector and had already completed half of his mission.

Angry that she hadn’t posed a challenge, Jazon gave her mind a nudge to wake her. The containment cell had a plasti-berth attached to the wall, a waste unit, and a sink. She was sleeping on her side on the berth where he had left her. He watched as she opened big, solid black eyes. It took her a moment to realize where she was and that her restraints were off. Then, when she noticed him watching her from the other side of the cell’s shielding, she sat up, pushed herself back into the farthest corner of the berth, covered her head with her arms, and cried.

Jazon started laughing. “You think covering your head with your arms will keep me out of it? You’re more stupid than I thought.”

Tracy removed her arms from her head and wrapped them around her legs.

“Where is the rest of your research?” Jazon asked.

“You shouldn’t exist,” Tracy said with a shaking voice.

“Don’t give me that crap, you little hypocrite. Tell me what I want to know, or I will tear it from your mind piece by piece.”

Tracy stared at the hybrid soldier. Like the cloned arms in the lab, he was a nightmare given life. He was huge. She thought he must be six feet tall. His muscular arms were as big around as her thighs. He had blasters holstered at his sides. Her gazed traveled up to his clenched jaw, angry mouth, and short brown hair. She tried to avoid looking into the solid black eyes that he could use to steal her thoughts. She imagined she could feel him trying to steal her soul with his Enyo abilities.

“Where is the research?” Jazon yelled. The deep boom of his voice made Tracy jump where she sat huddled in on herself.

“I put it in my bag! It doesn’t belong to you!” Tracy screamed back at him while tears inspired by her terror streamed down her face.

“This?” Jazon asked as he held up her father’s vid-pad. “Where is your cloning research facility located? The one where I found you is nothing but a relay station.”

“Give that back! It isn’t yours! You have no right to his research. It wasn’t meant for you or your sick, twisted corruptions of nature!” This was the man Duran had hired to murder her father. Tracy was sure of it. He looked like he enjoyed destroying what was good and pure.

Jazon had had enough of the self-righteous little Eriopis slut. He dropped the worthless vid-pad and the cell’s shielding. Enough time had been wasted exchanging insults, and he was sick of her ignorant act. Tracy rose shakily to her feet to stand on top of the berth. She still wore her thick-soled boots, but her sonic blaster was gone, not that it could have harmed the ruthless monster in front of her. He charged into the cell with such speed that she almost missed her opportunity to kick him. She threw up hasty mental shields, the ones girls were taught in the unlikely event of a rape attempt. Tracy managed to deliver a solid kick to his jaw before he grabbed her ankle and dragged her down to the berth. Her butt hit right before the back of her head hit the wall. Her ponytail had slipped from her tangled hair. With the heel of her shoe, she directed a hard kick to his crotch.

He pivoted out of harm’s way and trapped her. Jazon was furious that she was able to keep the information hidden. Normally, when he or his brothers asked a question, a person would think the answer first and attempt to hide it second. Perhaps, this female was a skilled liar. With the female locked into a tight hold, he asked her his question again.

“Where is the cloning facility?”

Tracy couldn’t look away from the solid black eyes. She fell into them and became one with them. “In Fig Forest,” she answered.

“Where is the cloning research?”

“In the lab.”

“Where is the lab?”

“In Fig Forest.”

“Where is the other cloning lab?” Jazon asked. This surely must be the most annoying female to have ever existed.

“I don’t know.”

“Why were you in the lab?” Maybe, changing his line of questioning would help.

“I went to take back my father’s notes to prove Duran killed him, or maybe he had you do it.”

Her answer surprised him. Jazon released his hold on the female and moved away to think. Shit. Had he arrested the wrong scientist?

Tracy sprang from the plasti-berth and ran at Jazon’s back. She pummeled her fists into him with all of her strength. They had killed her father, the man she had loved with all of her heart and respected with all of her mind.

“You killed my father! I hate you! You’re a filthy experiment who is living while my father is gone!”

Jazon was doused by the female’s confusion and pain. He had made a mistake. As penance, he remained still and allowed the female to hit and kick him until she exhausted herself and crumpled into a heap on the floor to weep. Bending down, Jazon picked her up and stepped from the cell. Stooping down with her in his arms, he picked up her father’s vid-pad and carried her to his quarters. He put the hysterical female on the bed, removed her shoes, handed her the vid-pad which she clutched to her chest, and went into the bathroom. He returned with waste paper.

Taking it from him, she blew her nose. When she had regained enough composure to draw in shuddering breaths, he said, “My name is Jazon Ponidi. I am a member of the Imperial Guard in service to Princess Probus of Parvac. I am on a mission to discover those responsible for creating dangerous clones that threaten the lives of the Imperial family. Who are you?”

“Did you kill my father?”

“I’m not sure. Do you have a picture?”

“Do you kill so many?” Tracy asked appalled at his response.

“Well, I am a filthy experiment,” Jazon said with a smirk.

“I can’t show you a picture of him. My vid-screen is gone.”

“Tell me his name,” Jazon ordered.

“Dr. Nathan Heintz was my father’s name,” Tracy said quietly.

Her sorrow tore at Jazon. Walking over to his vid-screen, he pulled up files on the man. He had black hair and a kindly face. Reading quickly, Jazon said, “Dr. Heintz has one daughter, Tracy. That must be you.”

She nodded her head.

Dr. Heintz wasn’t nefarious. The man had been studying star fish, and his daughter was an oceanographer, following in her father’s footsteps. Handing her more waste paper, he said, “Why don’t you start at the beginning and tell me what happened?”

“I don’t have to tell you anything! You have to let me go!” Tracy said.

“I’d be happy to. Which airlock would you prefer?” Jazon asked with an unnerving smile.

With a quick intake of breath and wide eyes, Tracy scooted off of the bed, walked around Jazon, giving him plenty of distance, and darted from the room and into the small habitation area. Across from his quarters was a small sitting area. She ran in her socks across it to the hull and the open viewport. Tracy pressed her hands to the thick plasti-glass and stared out at stars. Jazon walked to stand behind her. He was curious about the female. Her tangled black hair brushed her shoulders. She jumped when she noticed the reflection of his solid black eyes on the plasti-glass.

Tracy turned. Outraged, she said, “You took me from the surface?” She had almost told him how much trouble he would be in with her father, but she stopped herself. Her father wouldn’t be coming to get her. He couldn’t make things all better anymore. Her mother was lost to her.

Jazon felt Tracy’s emotions as she did. Noticing a small bit of torn fig leaf in her hair, he reached up to pull it free. It made Tracy furious, and she slapped at his hand repeatedly.

“Don’t touch me! How dare you take me from Aurilius without my permission?”

Jazon flicked the leaf away. “How about I take you back and leave you right where I found you?” Jazon yelled back.

Remembering where she had been, with the arms that had floated within fluid-filled canisters, Tracy shuddered. “I suppose it would be okay if you let me out on Epopeus.”

Jazon crowded Tracy against the viewport and put his hands against it to either side of her head. Tracy closed her eyes, turned her face away from him, and clutched her father’s vid-pad closer to her chest for comfort. “What were you doing in that bunker” Jazon asked menacingly.

“I already told you. What? Are you stupid? I went to get my father’s notes. They were stolen.”

“How did you know where to find them?”

Tracy told him about her father’s stylus. She wanted to go home where she could feel safe, but it had been sold, and everything was gone.

“Who do you think stole your father’s notes?”

“Duran Jarreau, my new stepfather. I remembered a fight I had overheard between them while I was searching Jarreau’s home office for information for an application. He had some of father’s files. They should have been at the academy, not in Duran’s desk. I searched for father’s vid-pad to see if it was at the academy or in storage. Those were the only places it should have been.”

“But, you found it in a forested area all by yourself?”

“Yes! What’s it to you?” Angry at his tone, Tracy shoved at the hybrid’s chest.

She wanted to get away from him before he either stole her mind and soul and made her his slave, or went into a mad rage and tore her limb from limb to feast upon her flesh. A disturbing thought occurred to her. What if he was really the one in charge of that lab? The hybrid could be controlling Duran’s mind. He could be forcing the scientists to grow the clones to satisfy his hunger for humanoid flesh. It was like a movie she and Jaimie had snuck out to see. Horrified, Tracy screamed.

“Would you shut up? I don’t eat humanoid flesh and neither do my brothers. I’ve never created mindless hordes to do my bidding. You are a stupid little girl, and I find your thoughts offensive,” Jazon said.

“Then, stay out of them!”

“Fine!” Jazon took Tracy by the arm and led her back to her confinement cell. He shoved her into it and raised the shield.

“What are you doing? You can’t leave me in here! I’m not a criminal!”

“Yes, you are,” Jazon said with his hands on his hips.

“No, I am not!”

“I caught you after you had broken into a private bunker.”

Outraged, Tracy said, “You broke in, too! I locked the door behind me!”

“I’m an Imperial Guard on a sanctified mission from the Parvac Empire with Galaxic Militia approval.”

Tracy didn’t know what to say, and it didn’t matter anyway. The hybrid walked away.

As the hours passed and no one came to check on her, Tracy’s bladder couldn’t take anymore. Around the waste unit, there was no privacy screen. No one had been by her cell, so she hurried to pull down her pants and sit on the waste unit, pulling her shirt down as far as possible. Feeling better physically, even though she had been forgotten, Tracy tried to find a comfortable position on the berth where she began reading through her father’s last notes. Most of it was beyond her, but what she did gather from it was that he had figured out how sea stars were able to program their stem cells to differentiate into the cells they needed to regrow limbs. He had begun studying how to apply that knowledge to help people who had suffered from traumatic injuries.

“Oh, father. All you wanted to do was help others.”

Her father hadn’t been after a profit. He wanted to learn from nature how it healed itself and apply that knowledge.

“If the serum I tracked with nanite technology and your father’s research were combined, it would triple the speeds of current tissue regeneration therapies,” Jazon said.

The hybrid had set Tracy’s heart to pounding in fear. “Do you have to sneak up on me like that? And, stay out of my head!” Tracy lifted her knees up to her chest defensively.

“I’m not going to hurt you. I came to ask if you are calm enough to eat at the table, or if I should bring food to you in here.”

His smug, arrogant tone pissed Tracy off. If her father’s vid-pad wasn’t so important to her, she would throw it at his stupid face. “Well, are you letting me out or not?” she asked.

“We can see how it goes. Behave, or I will turn you over to the Enforcers on Epopeus. Follow me.” Jazon walked off.

Tracy followed the hybrid to the habitation area. As they walked past the sitting area to a kitchen and dining section, hope filled Tracy at the sight of two males who were sitting at the table. Then, after looking at their eyes and the sheer size of them, she realized they were both Parvacs.

“Oh, stars. I’m trapped on a ship with a hybrid and Parvacs,” Tracy mumbled under her breath.

Hearing her, Jazon smiled sweetly at her and said, “Remember, Tracy. There is always an airlock available for your convenience.” Then, he pulled out a chair for her.

Warily, Tracy sat. The Parvacs were even bigger than the hybrid. She knew about the Peace Treaty of Amphictyon, but she had heard just as many horror stories about Parvacs stealing women as she had heard about hybrid monsters. Jazon grinned and slid a heated meal across the table to her. Not having eaten anything since the previous day, she was starving. Her mouth watered at the sight of the steak and baked potato. She remembered having skipped dinner but wasn’t sure how many other meals she had missed.

“Breakfast,” Jazon said around a mouthful of steak.

Tracy glared at him. “Stay out of my mind.”

“I can’t. It’s what we filthy hybrids do.”

The Parvac to her right laughed. “I take it your Laconian women don’t find you as fascinating as our women do?” Captain Agata asked.

“No. This one thinks I’d rather eat her legs than what’s between them,” Jazon said.

The Parvacs laughed with him. Tracy turned red. She knew about what they were talking. Jaimie had told her. Strass had never done something so embarrassing to her. Their times together had always been quick, and they had always remained partially clothed for fear of being caught. Jazon winked a solid black eye at her. Tracy ate quickly, hoping she would be taken back to her confinement cell.

Instead, Jazon said, “You can use my shower. I’ll put some clothes out for you. Make yourself useful. Clean and store these,” he said of the dishes.

The two Parvacs looked at him askew and did their own dishes. Tracy sighed. Even captured by aliens, it seemed her destiny was to do dishes. She had spent more time doing dishes than anything else in her life. At least there weren’t hardly any to do. Her little brothers could dirty a dozen different things in a blink. She forced herself not to worry about them. Angelica was a trained nanny from a prominent facility. The boys probably didn’t even realize their older sister had been kidnapped by a blood-thirsty hybrid and deadly Parvac soldiers.

“Boo,” Jazon whispered beside her ear.

The word, along with the way his breath moved her hair, made Tracy scream and jump. The container she was holding fell from her fingers. Jazon caught it before it hit the floor and stowed it. Loud male laughter followed.

“I didn’t realize that Laconian females were so timid. Reports of Isidora Montgomery had led me to believe quite the opposite.”

Tracy stared at the soldier. He grinned back at her.

“This one is going to be trouble. I can feel my hybrid senses tingling in warning,” Jazon said to Lieutenant Vasco.

“Don’t think to jeopardize our mission, young lady. This isn’t some frivolous whim for us. Innocent lives and our fragile peace are at risk,” Captain Agata said.

“Go shower. I’ll make up the couch for you,” Jazon said. He walked away from her with his arms full of blankets and a pillow.

“You don’t have to sleep on the couch. I will share my bed with you, Lady Tracy,” Lieutenant Vasco offered.

The Captain had already taken the lift up to the bridge. Tracy assumed his quarters were near it.

“Correct,” Jazon verified.

Tracy frowned at his back, narrowed her eyes at Lieutenant Vasco, and went into Jazon’s quarters. She locked his door. She felt more herself once she was clean. After drying her hair as best she could, she used the hybrid’s comb. Why anyone would go to the trouble to create such an annoying sentient, she didn’t know. He was rude, temperamental, bossy, and terrifying.

She picked up his toothbrush and was about to give it a dip in the waste unit when he said into her thoughts, “Don’t even think about it.”

With a snap of sound, she placed it back where she had found it.

Chapter Four

Jazon had been failing at all of his efforts to stay out of Tracy’s mind. He continued to slip comfortably into her thoughts. Instinctually, he had offered her empathic comfort during her moments of intense grief and fear. At first, her irrational fear of him had been a jarring reminder of why he and his brothers had avoided contact with Eriopis and Enyos. Both of the Laconian races could sense the duality of their hybrid natures. Laconians could discern their unnatural differences and knew with certainty that they had been genetically altered to allow their survival. It was a good thing they didn’t understand how much more powerful those genetic manipulations had made them.

Their father had come close to perfecting his new race of children with Izaac’s batch, 019. Izaac and his pod brothers, Rozz, Zam, and Traviz, were the strongest of them. Batch 021 hadn’t been as fortunate. Of them, only Jezzie remained. Jazon thought it was because their empathic abilities had been too strong.

Now, here Jazon was, alone in the Laconian Sector without his brothers, where just about everyone would see him as Tracy did. The hard part was not just suspecting their disgust, but being able to both feel it and verify it in the thoughts they believed they blocked from him. He finished making up the couch for his reluctant guest. He, Agata, and Vasco had agreed that she would have to remain under guard until the mission was complete. It would be too simple for an Eriopis male to pluck their identities and their mission from her mind and jeopardize everything.

He felt her approach and turned. Damp black hair fell to her shoulders. Big black eyes were in a pale, delicate face. Her arms and legs had the same white skin, like cream. Aurilius existed in a state of perpetual twilight and darkness, being as far as it was from a sun. Jazon wanted to look at her on the sandy beaches of Epopeus and began wondering how to manipulate events in order to make it possible.

“Um, ah, here,” Jazon said as he pulled back the covers.

Tracy hurried past him and crawled inside of the blankets. She looked so small in his shirt. Jazon moved to tuck the blankets around her. Tracy slapped his hand.

“Well, goodnight,” Jazon grumbled as he stormed off to his quarters.

Tracy watched his back as he walked to his room. She pulled the covers up under her chin and looked around at her unfamiliar surroundings while attempting to fall asleep.

Even though he was annoyed with the female, Jazon gave her nervously flittering mind a gentle nudge to sleep. Then, he changed into some exercise clothes and went to the small gym to work out. Sleep wouldn’t be coming as easily for him. He’d have to exhaust himself.

The next morning at the dining table, Captain Agata said quietly, “We have discovered that the nanites being used to send the differentiating commands to the stem cells are provided by a small company that attempts to compete with Bosh Technologies.” He took a sip of coffee and then finished off his eggs. “Vasco and I will go in, place an order for medical nanites, and plant listening devices. While you draw all of the attention in the merchant district, we should be able to catch them off guard.”

“What are you going to do with her?” Vasco asked.

“I’ll keep her with me. What do you think of that, Tracy? Do you want to help bring your father’s killers to justice, or will you hide under your blankets, pretend to be asleep, and eavesdrop on our meeting?” Jazon asked.

Tracy froze for a moment before she gave up on her ruse and sat up. With wary glances at the men watching her, she wrapped a blanket around herself and walked to the table. Jazon returned his attention to his breakfast. He felt an unwelcomed pang whenever he looked at her pale little face, messy black hair, and big black eyes. She looked like a real version of one of the little dolls with which Neema played.

“May I get you some breakfast, Lady Tracy?” Vasco asked with a charming smile.

“Yes, thank you.”

Jazon glared at the man while he prepared Tracy’s breakfast. Vasco planned to win Tracy for himself. It filled Jazon with unmitigated fury because part of him longed for her acceptance. Parvacian society had accepted him. Occasionally, Parvac females would give Jazon considering looks, but they didn’t mesmerize him the way mean, judgmental little Tracy did with those big black eyes of hers.

“What are you staring at?” she asked snottily. Jazon glared at her, too. He cleaned and stowed his dishes and returned to the gym. Glad he had gone and taken his unnerving stares with him, Tracy ate her breakfast. “Why do I have to go with him? I can be of more help at the nanite company.”

Captain Agata said, “You need to remain with Jazon so that he can shield your mind. Those instrumental in the creation of the clones whom we seek will know that you are Dr. Heintz’s daughter. Should someone recognize you, Jazon will sense it, and we will have a new investigative lead.”

Vasco refilled her glass of juice. “Why are you so hard on him?” he asked.

“He’s a hybrid.”

Vasco waited for her to explain.

“He’s dangerous and unstable,” Tracy added.

“You are a scientist, are you not?” Vasco asked.

“I completed my oceanography degree.”

“As an educated individual, perhaps you might consider making your own observations of him rather than operating under the assumption that those childhood tales told in the dead of night at sleepovers are fact. Yes, he is a dangerous adversary, but his service and loyalty to the Empire are worthy of respect, not childish censor and hostility.”

Tracy felt her cheeks begin to burn. “My father taught me that such genetic manipulations go against nature.”

“Without him, how would we battle against the truly unnatural clones that are being created and used to murder, deceive, and insight war?”

“So, you think it takes a monster to defeat a monster?” Tracy asked.

“He isn’t a monster. He is a highly evolved warrior, and in my presence, you will treat him with the respect his rank deserves. Is that clear?” Captain Agata asked. Tracy stared at the male and clutched her blanket tighter. “Vasco, we have work on the bridge.”

“Yes, sir.”

The men left, leaving Tracy to finish her breakfast in peace. In the hybrid’s room, she found her clothing, clean and folded. She got herself cleaned up, her hair tamed, folded her blankets, and stacked them on the couch with her pillow on top of them. On the habitation deck, her movements hadn’t been restricted, so she went exploring. The open kitchen, dining, and living space butted the hull where two viewports provided a view of passing stars. Tracy didn’t recall the stars passing by quite so quickly on the trip to Epopeus on which she had gone with her father and his research team a few years ago. On that trip, she had gotten to assist in collecting research samples.

Tracy remembered smiling up at her father as warm waves tickled her knees. Specks of white sand and water droplets had clung to his protective glasses as he had helped her place the sea star into its container. She fought back against her sorrow. She wanted to make whomever had taken him from her and her brothers pay, even if it meant cooperating with a hybrid and a couple of Parvac soldiers.

She walked past the two doors leading into crew quarters and along a short corridor. There was a medical bay, storage and laundry room, and a gym. The other rooms were sealed. She entered the gym. Jazon was occupying the corner to her right. His back was turned to her and covered in a sheen of sweat. In his hands, he gripped a horizontal bar. Slowly, he lifted his weight until his head was above the bar before slowly lowering himself. He repeated his actions. His feet were crossed at the ankles and held away from the decking. Mesmerized, Tracy watched as he lifted himself yet again using only the strength of his arms. Muscles rippled beneath his tan skin. A line ran down the center of his back to disappear beneath the waistband of his exercise shorts. Liquid heat pooled involuntarily between her legs. Strass was downright feminine compared to this male.

Jazon dropped to the flooring and turned. “What?” he asked.

Tracy had forgotten why she had been looking for him and instead focused on his etched stomach muscles. Confused, she turned around and returned to the small sitting area. After she had gone, Jazon grinned. Her mind and mouth said no, but physically she wanted him. There was hope he could win her. He decided to make an effort to be shirtless around Tracy as much as possible while docked on Epopeus. After his shower, he found her seated with a stiff spine on the couch watching a documentary on the wall-mounted vid-screen. Lieutenant Vasco had deactivated its communications functions as a precaution.

“Have you decided to assist us in our investigation?” Jazon asked.

“How do I even know that I can trust you?”

“What? Would you like to see our service records?” Jazon asked sarcastically.

“Maybe, I would!” Tracy snottily replied.

“Fine!” Jazon stormed off to his quarters and returned with his vid-screen. “I’m watching you. Don’t try anything,” he warned as he thrust the device at Tracy.

She shot an annoyed look at him and then began perusing the files. First to appear were Captain Agata and Lieutenant Vasco. The men had been in the Inquisitors’ Branch of the Parvac military since they were her age. Then, she saw Jazon Ponidi of the Omnes Videntes, an Imperial Guard to Princess Probus of Parvac. Serious black eyes peered back at her from the screen. He looked proud and deadly in his black uniform trimmed in silver. Neat medals and ribbons decorated his chest.

Contritely, Tracy said, “Okay. Maybe, you are who you say you are.” She handed the vid-screen back to him.

Jazon sat down on the couch beside her. “Lady Tracy, our goals coincide. Let us seek justice together.”

Surprised at his sincerity and sudden display of manners, Tracy turned to face him. “Whoever killed my father made it seem as though he died of natural causes.” The memory caused her pain.

Jazon reached out to take her hand, but she folded her arms across his chest. He realized that she would only ever reject him. Tracy was a traditionalist. She would never encourage friendly or romantic gestures from him. The fleeting thoughts he had entertained of winning her for himself vanished. He needed to keep his mind on his mission and not on a female. Felix could have clones imbued with his knowledge poised to harm Teagan, Empress Neema, or the children. It was his job to eliminate the clones and bring their creator into custody. It was time for him to accept that any happiness that came to him would come vicariously through his brothers.

“You look much more professional in your uniform,” Tracy said as she glanced up at his hair. It appeared to have grown some since the picture had been taken.

“I am a merchant from the Empire buying supplies to sell to the Eloneave on Talpa. I need to look the part and not the soldier.”

“That makes sense.”

“We will gather intelligence secretly.”

“Do you know anything yet?”

“I know you aren’t heading the cloning research or involved with it in any way. We will learn more on Epopeus.” Jazon stood.

“I want to help,” Tracy said in a rush.

“Alright. We will devise a cover story for you, and it needs to be quick. Your babysitter has reported you to be missing.”

“Babysitter?”

Jazon raised an eyebrow at her.

“Angelica. She’s my brothers’ nanny. I better call her.”

“First, we must decide what to tell her.”

“That’s simple. I decided to apply for a research position on Epopeus at the University of Oceanonics for graduate credit. I’ve decided to become a doctor like my father. I’m an adult. I can go wherever I please. I booked cheap passage on your merchant ship.”

“I will clear it with my team.” Jazon gave her a quick bow and went to the lift.

In a matter of minutes, Tracy had her missing person’s status revoked and Angelica calmed. That Angelica and the Enforcers knew her itinerary relieved much of her apprehension. If the hybrid and the Parvacs had intended to abduct her, they wouldn’t have allowed the communication. However, now whoever had killed her father knew where she was and where she was going. Also, whoever did run the lab in the middle of Fig Forest must have realized by now that her father’s vid-screen was missing. Would whoever he was come looking for her?

By the second day of her impromptu journey, Tracy was feeling less on edge. Captain Agata was formally polite, Lieutenant Vasco flirted with her, and Jazon had been quiet and reserved.

“Lady Tracy, a message is coming through for you. Can we trust you?” Captain Agata asked.

“Yes, I won’t tell what we are really doing.”

Jazon said, “I’ll make certain of it,” to Captain Agata.

Tracy bristled. He had some nerve. When the Captain put the message through to the wall-mounted vid-screen, Tracy was surprised. It was the last person she had expected to call. She had expected it to be her mother or Duran along with a heated argument. Instead, it was Strass.

“Tracy, what do you think you’re doing?” Strass was furious. “You told me one thing when I asked to see you, but instead you were planning to run away?”

“Strass, I knew you wouldn’t understand. I’ve decided to attend graduate classes and intend to secure an internship.”

“Not if I have anything to say about it. Turn around and come home. I’ll pay your passage fees.”

“I’m not going home. I can never go home. It was sold. Remember?”

“You have a new home for now, and I intend for you to have one with me.”

“What?” Tracy asked.

“You must know that I intend to make you one of my wives, Tracy,” Strass said in a patient, condescending tone.

“No, I didn’t realize that. Your attention quickly strays elsewhere.”

Strass gave her a sympathetic look. Jazon observed the boy. He had a weak chin, a scrawny neck, and a mousey look about him.

“Tracy, come now. What do you expect? You are often more interested in your samples than you are in me. However, I’m willing to overlook your eccentricities and take you in.”

Strass had been the only boy to show any interest in her. She had been thrilled with his attentions. Strass was a third son of a prominent family. Marrying him would secure her future. Even if she did become a forgotten wife, she would be financially safe. Pursuing her doctorate would destroy her chances of receiving another offer of marriage. She was sure of it. What should she do?

“Lady Tracy, I beg you. Please, give me a chance to win your affections for myself. If after my business on Epopeus concludes and I have not convinced you to accept me, I will return you to the scrawny arms of this boy. However, I believe you will be more content within my embrace,” Jazon said from where he had gone down to his knee before her. “Play along,” Jazon whispered into her mind.

Reaching out, he trailed his fingers along her white throat while sending all of his desire coursing through his touch. Tracy’s head fell back to the couch as pleasure unlike anything she had ever imagined tingled through her. She cried out as that pleasure centered between her thighs with an almost seismic intensity as her world shook. Unable to resist, Jazon buried his fingers into her thick black hair and kissed her with the depth of his pain and longing.

When he ended the kiss, he said against her lips, “Stay with me, Tracy. I need you. I would worship you for all of my days. You deserve more than some spoiled boy.”

Jazon turned his attention back to the little prick who had insulted Tracy. Jazon had seen his type before. The puny little narcissist would wear her down piece by piece, and make her feel like she deserved it. He should do Tracy a favor and twist Strass’ head off of his neck for her.

“How dare you attempt to steal my female from me?”

“She isn’t yours until she places her palm on the scanner,” Jazon countered.

“She is mine! She has given herself to me!” Strass yelled in impotent fury.

“Well, you must not have given her enough, or she wouldn’t have decided to leave you. Accept it. She was finished with you before she ever met me.”

“You will pay for this, merchant! My father will deal with you!” Strass screamed.

Jazon started laughing harder than he could ever remember having laughed before. “You really are just a boy. Look, son. Be glad Tracy gave you any of her attention at all. She is way out of your league. She’s out of mine, too. However, unlike you, I’m aware of it and plan to learn from your mistakes. You’ve only got yourself to blame. You should have treated her better while you had the chance.” Jazon ended the call.

Tracy had listened from where she laid boneless against the couch. She hadn’t seen Strass’ reactions because all she could see were flashes of lights on the inside of her eyelids.

“Are you alright?” Jazon asked concerned. He hadn’t ever known of a female to react in such a way to just a touch and a kiss. “That boy must have the lovemaking skills of an aged slug. Maybe, you should rest for a while.”

Tracy gave an inarticulate squeak for an answer. Her brain felt like it had been rented out for a fireworks exhibit. Jazon picked Tracy up and carried her to his bed. When he tucked her in, she didn’t slap his hands away.

Chapter Five

Jazon did something that he had sworn he would never do. For the remainder of the short jaunt to Epopeus, he became a coward. He forcefully shielded himself from her thoughts. To Tracy, he was a filthy experiment. For all he knew, she might prefer Strass, a pathetic excuse for a male, to him. She might be angry with him for destroying her chances.

“Jazon, make it up to her,” Agata said.

“What?” he asked, torn from his miserable thoughts.

“Give her a surprise, something to make her feel special,” Vasco suggested.

“Diamonds, the bigger and clearer the better,” Agata said.

“No, lab equipment,” Jazon said as inspiration struck. “We’ll put her to work on her father’s theories. I’ll get her to collect specimens on Epopeus. That will make her happy.”

“Medical is small, but there should be enough room,” Vasco said.

“Yes,” Jazon agreed. He returned his attention to Duran Jarreau. “This bastard is off with the wife, sifting through her memories of her husband’s work under the guise of a honeymoon. However, soon he will realize that Daddy’s little girl is the one with all of the answers. Then, he’s gonna come for her.”

“Good. Then, we will pull the answers to our questions from him,” Vasco said.

Tracy had been left alone on the habitation deck, and she feared she knew why. After the mind-blowing pleasure and kiss that Jazon had given her, he had vanished afterwards, just as Strass tended to do. She was ashamed to admit it to herself, but she must be a terrible kisser. Tracy was mortified. At least now she knew without a doubt that her decision to focus on science was the best one for her. She didn’t have what it took to keep a Laconian male interested.

At dinner, she listened to their plans for Epopeus. Jazon didn’t make eye contact with her. She couldn’t blame him. All she had done was insult him, attack him with her fists, and treat him with contempt. Even after her reprehensible behavior, he had defended her to Strass. Now, Jazon must think of her as rude, cruel, and a sexual bore. She hadn’t felt so humiliated since the night she had snuck off with Strass and given him her virginity. He had become agitated with her attempts to move with him and had finally yelled at her to be still. She would never forget her tears from the pain and embarrassment of her first time. Jazon’s kiss and subsequent rejection had brought all of those memories back.

Jazon went to his quarters, keeping his mind firmly shielded from Tracy, and meditated for a few hours before he was able to go to sleep. Unfortunately, he couldn’t block his empathic bond to her, and her embarrassment and revulsion were clear. He had no idea how to apologize for kissing her.

After docking on Epopeus, Agata and Vasco implemented their plan to plant spyware at the nanite company. Jazon was nervous to approach Tracy. However, he hardened himself to her possible reactions. Jazon had become accustomed to being treated with contempt and scorn. Tracy was no different. Living on Parvac where he and his brothers had earned acceptance had given him hope. He needed to kill that hope and put it away from him for good.

“Are you ready, Lady Tracy?” he asked.

“Yes, what do you want me to do?”

“Today, I am supposed to appear the merchant. The Eloneave are jungle dwellers and have few comforts. If you see something they might find useful, point it out.”

“Alright.”

Jazon placed protective eyewear on her palm and provided her with a jar of sun cream. The brilliance of the two suns of Epopeus could pose serious hazards to the unwary.

They spent the early morning hours buying sturdy pots, pans, and cooking utensils. Tracy pushed her protective glasses back up her nose.

“What are the Eloneave like?” she asked.

Jazon said, “They are desperate to create a new civilization for themselves. For many years, they survived in life ships and feared they would die in space. Their children had never felt a planet beneath their feet. That is something I had not thought of. I should know better. Children like toys. The Eloneave did not waste their resources on such things.”

“There,” Tracy said as she pointed out a toy store on the other side of the market.

Thinking of Peter, Jazon bought a crate of rattles. Then, he purchased just as many dolls and toy transports. “The large land transport is full. It’s time to return to the ship. Then, I have one more trip in mind.”

Tracy was silent during the drive to the land port. While in the toy store, she had caught Jazon looking with naked longing at a couple with their small family. He had quickly hidden it. She had also taken note of the distrust and sometimes hostility with which other Laconians treated Jazon. She felt absolutely wretched for how she had treated him. The more she was around him, the more she realized that his tough persona and acerbic comments were his armor against rejection. Tracy had spent her life being loved and adored by her family. She had enjoyed the respect with which her father had been treated within the academic community. How different it must have been for Jazon.

At the land port, he drove into the ship and got out. Tracy hopped down from her seat and closed her door.

“What’s next?” she asked.

“It’s just an idea. With Epopeus’ oceans, it is the perfect place for you to collect samples. I had hoped you might attempt to understand your father’s breakthrough. You could use the equipment in medical. Anything you discover could help us find new leads in the case.”

The disgust he had felt from her all day was replaced with excitement. “Yes, I could do that!”

Jazon nodded at her. “Very good. Which beach would you prefer?”

Thoughtfully, she said, “Wait. First, we need to get a tank for the samples.”

“Let’s go,” he said as he got into a different transport.

Tracy directed him to the university. Near it was a store that sold specimen tanks and specialized research equipment. Tracy blushed at him as he paid the six thousand credits for her supplies. Next, Jazon drove for an hour to the beach where Tracy assured him she could find sea stars. Jazon drove them down a sandy road that was shaded by flowering jungle trees. It was a nice change feeling excitement from Tracy. The ride was somewhat bumpy, but he was able to drive them onto the beach. The bright suns reflected off of the hood of the transport, making him more appreciative of his protective eyewear.

Tracy had started removing her shoes and rolling up her pants, so he did the same. Jazon glanced over at her smile but quickly gazed out of her window as if he had been looking at the waves as they rolled upon the shore.

“I love that sound,” Tracy said as she closed her eyes against the bright suns and listened to the waves roar across the sand.

Jazon went to the back and attached an anti-grav unit to the plasti tank she had purchased. Their toes sank into the hot sand. Tracy ran across it to the wet sand and laughed as water lapped over her toes. The wind whipped her black hair around, and she tried to make it stay behind her ears.

“Wait. What was that? You were just smiling! I saw it with my own two eyes,” Tracy said.

Jazon shrugged.

Embarrassed that her attempt at being playful had failed, Tracy pointed. “Up ahead, under the shade of that outcropping is a depression where ocean water collects. That’s where my father took me.” She had to speak up to be heard over the waves and wind.

Jazon followed after her with the tank.

Tracy waded into the water. It felt cool and refreshing against her hot skin. Large rocks and colonies of coral created a warm habitat for a thriving community of colorful fish. It looked like a large circular pool had formed out of rock that had been smoothed by time and waves. Sand covered its bottom. It was deeper nearer the ocean where fresh seawater entered the pool through a narrow chasm in the rock. Large predators wouldn’t be able to enter.

She was chest deep in the water and walking toward several sea stars that clung to a rock just below the surface. They were the same bright red color as the flowers that grew abundantly in the jungle trees. Something slithering out of the coral caught Jazon’s eye.

“Tracy!” Jazon jumped into the water, grabbed Tracy, put her up onto his shoulder, and drew his knife.

The yellow sea snake carried a painful venom in its bite that could be fatal to such a tiny female. He put her onto the sand and climbed out after her. Tracy stared up at the dripping wet male above her. His shirt clung to him along with a dusting of white sand. He turned from her before she could ask him to give her another chance at kissing. Jazon watched as the sea snake squeezed between the fissure in the rock and swam out into the open ocean. He turned back to Tracy. She was soaking wet, laying on the sand, with her head resting on a black pillow of her hair. Jazon’s cock became stone. He was so painfully hard that he thought his cock would break off. Not wanting to humiliate himself anymore with Tracy, he turned his back and slid into the pool.

“It should be safe now,” he said. Jazon held his hand up to Tracy. Taking it, she climbed back down and forced her disappointment away.

She peered down through the water at a couple of sea stars. “These two specimens look good. Will you please fill the tank? I’ll just put them in it along with their rock.”

After they had accomplished their goal and had loaded the sea stars into the transport, they sat on the beach to dry.

“Jazon, thank you. That was very brave. We are miles away from a medical unit. A bite from that sea snake would have been agonizing.”

Gruffly, Jazon said, “It is my duty to protect you.” He had taken his shirt off to dry. He shook it out before putting it back on. “We should go before your skin burns.”

Tracy could have gone without the reminder. The Eriopis females of Epopeus were mostly tan and blonde. Like most males, Jazon must have found the women on the planet to be very attractive. Tracy was all too aware of her pale skin and slim build. They rode back to the ship in silence. Night had fallen by the time they got back. While she showered, the men set up her lab. Then, they disappeared to the bridge to listen in at the nanite company.

That night, Tracy had difficulty sleeping. Dreams of Jazon, looking down at her through dark glasses with his solid black eyes, brown hair dripping with ocean water, and his shirt clinging to him tormented her. He had jumped into the water between her and a venomous sea snake. It was the bravest thing she had ever seen, but he acted like it was nothing. The unrelenting ache stayed with her through breakfast. She noticed Jazon scowling at her clothing. The sun and ocean water had unevenly bleached her shirt and pants. It embarrassed her further.

“I’m taking Lady Tracy to grab a few things. When we return, we can depart to investigate the facility on Leucon,” Jazon said.

“Yes, sir,” Captain Agata said.

“Come with me,” Jazon said as he stood and motioned her over to the lift.

Once they were in the transport and driving toward the nearest shops, Tracy asked, “Why did Captain Agata call you sir?”

Jazon parked in front of a covered market. “Because this is my mission,” he said before getting out and opening her door.

“It sounded like you outrank him the way he said it.”

“I do.”

His answer had her feeling even more ashamed of the way she had treated him. After almost an hour of shopping, Tracy had the clothing and toiletries she needed. Jazon tried not to watch her. Tracy’s emotions had become a part of him, and it was painful. He feared he had empathically bonded to a female who couldn’t stand the sight of him. Even when his shirt had been off at the beach, all he had sensed from her was embarrassment and shame. He had foolishly hoped she would soften towards him, but now he feared her prejudices ran too deep. Jazon’s gaze whipped to the dressing room where she had been changing. She was no longer there. Finding her mind, he looked through her eyes at her location and ran.

“Let me go!” Tracy yelled as she tried to squirm free of the hands holding her arms.

“Lady Tracy, calm down. Lord Radford sent us to rescue you on behalf of Master Strass,” one of the men said. Lord Radford was Strass’ father.

“I don’t need to be rescued! I broke it off with Strass. I’m going to attend the university!”

“Then, you may tell him that in person,” he said.

Tracy struggled to free herself from the two hired guards. Once they had docked, the guards had hunted Tracy down and dragged her from the clothing store’s back exit.

“You can’t force me to go with you! I’m an adult!” Tracy yelled.

The guards were angry that she fought them and that they were unable to subdue her mind.

“Lord Jarreau disagrees. He moves that your bereavement has made you irrational,” the man said as he and the other guard forced her into a transport.

Jazon waited until Tracy was safely within the transport before striking. “My lady says that she does not wish to go with you,” he said.

Tracy tried to open the door but was locked inside. Lord Radford only hired the most formidable guards, and there were two of them. They would beat Jazon to death in the alley, and it would be her fault.

“Jazon, run!” she yelled at him through the closed window.

One of the guards pulled a blaster. “Go on about your business, merchant. You are out of your depth. The young lady belongs to the son of a very powerful man.”

“Too bad he couldn’t afford guards with brains,” Jazon said.

“Excuse me?” one of the guards asked.

“You two boys are out here all alone with me. There are no witnesses. Give me the woman, and no one has to get hurt.”

“The suns must have gone to your head. Get out of our way,” one of the men said as he reached down to open the driver’s side door.

Like the strike of a snake, Jazon banged the guard’s head against the transport twice before shooting at the other guard while using the unconscious man as a shield. The guard charged at Jazon with his fist swinging. Jazon moved out of the way as the man’s fist hit her window, smeared it with blood, and rocked the transport with the force of his blow. Tracy watched in shock as Jazon quickly rendered the man senseless with one punch. Then, he reached down and placed his hands to either side of the man’s face. After several moments, he released him. Then, he punched him once more. When he opened the door for her, he offered her his arm.

“Let’s complete your transaction and return to the ship. Now, we can assume that Radford and Jarreau are working together.”

Tracy was too stunned to speak. In the clothing store, Jazon acted like nothing had happened. Then, back on the ship, he carried her things to his room.

“I’ll share my storage space with you. Please, excuse me.” He bowed to her and left.

Tracy stood there in complete turmoil. A few minutes later, she felt the ship lift off from the planet’s surface. It took her a while to regain her composure.

The men had gone to unload the large land transport and refused to allow her to help, so she busied herself in the medical bay and tried to make sense of her father’s notes. She kept hearing his voice in her mind telling her that nature always found a way to heal itself. One of the sea stars began eating a mussel. Staring at one of her father’s scribbled pictures, she began to think it looked more like an embryo than a sea star’s stomach.

“Oh.”

She could just make out the word “plasmin” which had been scribbled and was barely legible. She didn’t think anyone but she or her father could have made the word out. After researching the word, her father’s notes on sea star regeneration-associated protease began to make more sense to her, but it was beyond more than her very basic understanding. To a knowledgeable scientist, her father’s findings would be of interest, especially to one specializing in cloning.

Tracy stared sadly at the sea stars in their tank. He had found a link between sea star regeneration and the quick cell differentiation of humanoid embryos. She imagined that whatever exactly it was would mean clones that could be grown faster.

“Time for dinner,” Lieutenant Vasco said. “Is something wrong?”

Tracy looked up at the rather average-looking, brown-haired, brown-eyed man. “I think I successfully transcribed my father’s notes.”

“That is excellent. What did you find?”

Tracy told him along with Captain Agata and Jazon, who had joined them in the medical bay.

“With whom would your father have shared his discovery?” Captain Agata asked.

“He would have told the professor in charge of his department who may have shared the information with a wealthy academy donor, Lord Radford.”

“That boy’s father and the man who hired men to take you?” Jazon asked.

Tracy nodded. “Excuse me.” She got up and went to Jazon’s room to be alone. Had Strass only been with her because his father had told him to go out with her? She had never mattered to him. She felt so stupid. She washed her face and joined the others for dinner.

That night, like those previously, thoughts of Jazon kept her awake. She sat up on the couch and buried her face in her hands. Tired of her guilt and shame, she decided to make an effort to make things right between them. Getting up, she went to his door and signaled for entry. Jazon answered the door in an odd pair of knee-length pajama bottoms. She forced her eyes up from the line of dark hair trailing downward and up to his eyes.

“Can we talk?”

“Yes, Lady Tracy,” Jazon said.

Tracy blushed at his formality. He offered her a chair, but she stood and paced. “I need to ask your forgiveness. I’ve behaved terribly toward you, and my shame and embarrassment consume me. You have already saved me twice now, and all I’ve done is call you names and berate you. Every time you call me ‘lady,’ I cringe because I’ve not been a lady to you. I’ve been a beast. You are honorable and brave. I hope you can find it in your heart to forgive my ignorance. That you are a hybrid was terrifying to learn, but more frightening was the knowledge that I was ignorant and callous to think of you as I did. I was wrong about you, and I am deeply sorry.”

Tracy now looked at her toes peeking out at her from beneath the pantlegs of her pajamas. Bare man feet came closer. She focused on the short brown hairs on his toes. Jazon lifted her chin. He looked confused.

“Your feelings of embarrassment, shame, and disgust I thought were directed at me.”

Tracy shook her head. “I’m so sorry, Jazon. If my father were alive to meet you and had the chance to get to know you, the kind of person you are, and what you stand for, I think his opinion of hybrids would have changed.”

Jazon’s mind and emotions were chaotic.

“I assumed you knew my thoughts, but considered me to be beneath contempt for my behavior,” Tracy said.

“I have shielded my mind from yours to protect myself. What I said to you in front of Strass, I meant. However, I know that there is no hope for one such as me to earn a place in your heart. You could never desire me, but all I can do is ache for you.”

Tracy could feel his naked, aching longing as it battered against her soul. She could see it in the black depths of his eyes. He had always been on the outside, shunned. She wouldn’t do that to him. His gaze slid from her down to the carpet between their feet. To him, that bit of carpeted space between them felt like parsecs.

“Jazon, why would you think that I wouldn’t want you? Aside from the noble characteristics which you have displayed, you are very attractive.”

“I’m a strong empath, Tracy. I shield my thoughts from you and yours from mine, but I can’t free myself from your emotions. Just this morning at breakfast, you felt disdain for me.”

Tracy thought back to that time. “No, I was thinking how frumpy in my ruined clothes I must have seemed to you.” Still, he didn’t look up at her eyes. “Jazon, I’ve laid awake at night longing for you.”

He shook his head. “Tracy, I forgive you for every cross word you’ve ever said to me. It’s alright. I’d be happy to start over and be friends. However, a beautiful young lady from a good family, such as yourself, could never want me. I’m just a hybrid. I wasn’t born. I was made. We were outcasts in this sector, illegal creations. My brothers and I have become citizens of the Parvac Empire. We have rights, now. It’s our home.”

Tracy had listened to his words, but there were some she just couldn’t believe. Incredulously, with her heart pounding, she said, “You think I don’t want you?”

The ache between her legs was hard and unbearable. She pushed her pajama bottoms and underwear down and then stood on top of them. Then, brazenly, she took his left hand in her right. Tracy pulled his hand between them and pressed his fingers to her wet, aching center.

“Look me in the eyes and tell me I don’t want you,” she said breathlessly.

Jazon was shocked from his own personal torment. Against his fingertips, he could feel her soft, wet folds. He looked up into Tracy’s eyes and caressed her with his fingers. She shuddered. Jazon dropped all of the telepathic walls he had erected between them and was bombarded by her truths.

“I wanted to take you in sand on the beach. I’ve wanted you each night.”

He took his fingers from her to lift her shirt from her. His cock threatened to tear itself free of his pajamas. He pushed them down his hips. Her eyes widened as she looked at his girth. Jazon was many times bigger than Strass. She thought maybe she should apologize to Jazon before they were intimate. Strass had only ever criticized her lovemaking efforts. Her eyes roamed over Jazon. She had never seen a man completely unclothed. Jazon’s lips touched hers, and her thoughts fled.

Never before had a woman wanted him. Tracy wanted him desperately. She had come to admire and respect him. He struggled not to bury himself within her. He would teach her to crave his touch. He had to make certain that no one would ever be able to please her to the extent that he could. Jazon lifted Tracy gently and laid her on his bed.

“You are so beautiful. I have longed to touch you, if only just your hand. Instead, I will caress you with my lips.”

Tracy shivered and tingled from his touch. “Oh! Jazon!” She clutched at his hair.

He lifted his mouth from where he suckled at her tender breast. Jazon grinned at her. “If you think that’s something, wait a moment.”

He held her gaze with his as he puckered his lips and blew air on her nipple. Then, he blew a trail of air down to her center. Tracy resisted as he pushed her thighs apart. A deep blush brightened her cheeks. Her eyes squeezed shut, and she shattered when he licked her. Tracy struggled to remain quiet with the force of her releases. The sheets were knotted in her hands. When she feared she couldn’t survive anymore, Jazon inched his way up her body. He placed his tip at her entrance, and as her folds clamped around his head, instinctually he telepathically bound her mind to his, and then he bound their souls as he surged forward. Several things seemed to happen at once. Jazon felt her hymen give way. Through his shock, he concealed the pain of it from her. Then, on that first thrust, he came hard. With the force of his release, surprise coursed through him. Tracy had lain with Strass, but the boy hadn’t had enough to take her virginity. Tracy was his. He would never let her go. Jazon felt humiliated as tears began to fall from his eyes.

“Jazon?”

“I’m sorry. My control faltered.” He pulled himself from her and laid on his back. He had mentally bound her to himself without her verbal consent.

Boneless, she straddled him and kissed away the dampness on his cheeks. He had bound them to each other. Without marriage negotiations or a contract, he had bound them together to satisfy a primal need. Jazon loved her. He couldn’t bear to be parted from her. She knew these things were true, because his thoughts had merged with her own. Empathically, she could feel the reason for his tears. No female had ever desired him as she did, had never seen him as her rescuer and hero. Tracy only saw him as the man he had become. “I love you, Jazon Ponidi. I won’t ever let you go, either.”

Now, his female was offering him comfort. “Tracy, I love you with all that I am or ever will be.” She nestled her head contentedly under his chin. “I vow to be the man you deserve me to be. I will make you proud to be my wife, if you will accept me.” Jazon held Tracy close and waited for an answer. Then, he turned carefully onto his side and pulled the blankets up over them both. He would have to wait until she awoke to ask her.

Chapter Six

When Tracy awoke, it was to a delicious soreness. A satisfied smile lifted the corners of her mouth. Jazon had claimed her as his woman. Joy unlike anything she had ever felt bubbled up inside of her. He was a solid, warm mass behind her verifying that the incredible passion he had shared with her the night before had been real. A blush heated her cheeks at the memory. Her hybrid warrior excelled at protecting her from sea snakes and commanding his own. Jazon’s laughter rumbled through his chest. Tracy lifted up and kissed his stubbly jaw. Then, she pressed her face to his neck and inhaled.

“You are even more beautiful when you wake. I had thought while you were sleeping that you were the most beautiful creation that I had ever before witnessed in the universes.” Jazon meant the words and through the new bonds they shared seemed to caress her soul with the power of his love. She laid against him and let his feeling for her wash her clean. “Tracy, take me as your husband. I beg you. Any attempt to live my life without you now would fail.”

She ran her palm over the hard muscles of his chest and moved the sole of her foot up and down against the crinkly hairs on his leg. She drew in a breath when her motions left her juncture open to his hairy thigh.

“You bound us together last night. I am yours, and you are mine. We can never be parted, or we would both be broken pieces. Our minds and emotions are joined like two sides of a shell. Our souls will create together our own pearl as we overcome each grain of sand together.”

Jazon, who Teagan had nicknamed Knife, died in Tracy’s arms. Her love, desire, and acceptance had killed him. Jazon tumbled Tracy beneath him and rolled pleasure through her as he made slow, passionate, love to her. After they had showered, dressed, and had breakfast, Jazon went down on his knees before her as Parvac males did.

“Lady Tracy Heintz, I formally offer myself and all that I am to you. Will you accept me as your husband?”

Tracy’s heart thudded in her chest as she looked down into Jazon’s black eyes, now ringed with white sclera. “I will.”

Her words were cut short as Jazon surged to his feet, took her into his embrace, and kissed her until she saw stars. He knew what she had been prepared to say. She was promising to be loyal and obedient as all Eriopis females vowed to their husbands. Jazon helped Tracy sit on the couch and then fumbled with his vid-screen. His hands shook and in embarrassment, he wiped at his tears.

“Allow me,” Captain Agata offered.

Jazon handed the device to him. Captain Agata had a wife who had given him a daughter. He pulled up a standard Parvac marriage contract. In the contract, Jazon gave Tracy the standard half of his credits. She would want for nothing. In his former life as an outcast mercenary with his brothers, he had amassed a fortune doing the dirty work of the rich and powerful. Captain Agata returned the vid-screen to Jazon. After giving it a glance, he pressed his palm to the screen and handed it to Tracy.

Her thoughts had cleared from his kisses. Being a pragmatic young woman, she sat and read the entire contract. “Jazon! This is too much! How do you have so many credits?” She was shocked by his wealth which pleased him.

“You will want for nothing. On Parvac, you may purchase whichever home you wish. There are universities in the Empire where you may continue your studies. You may do anything you desire. I am bound in service to the Imperial family. Where Princess Probus goes, I must go. When, like now, I am ordered to complete a mission, that is what I must do. You will have the freedom to either join me or remain in the Empire.” Jazon felt sweat beading beneath his armpits. What if she changed her mind?

“It is a standard marriage contract for the Empire, Lady Tracy,” Captain Agata said.

Tracy said, “I don’t need any enticements to marry you other than yourself.”

Jazon grinned at her as pride bloomed in his chest. “Then, accept me. To offer you less would be unseemly.”

Tracy pressed her palm to the screen. Jazon felt like he could fly. He smiled up at Tracy before hiding his face in her lap. He felt her fingers in his hair. Jazon had a true home all of his own in this woman. “I need to complete my mission so that I can take you home. I can’t wait to show you off at every ball.”

Tracy laughed. Jazon lifted his head and frowned. His expression prompted her to ask, “What’s wrong?”

“I need to keep you safe.”

“That’s what you’ve been doing. You saved me from Strass, a sea snake, and Lord Radford’s guards.”

Jazon took Tracy’s hands in his and kissed her fingers. “I must find the one responsible for the creation of the former Ambassador Jiri’s clones. Our futures depend on it.”

With redoubled efforts, Captain Agata, Lieutenant Vasco, and Jazon prepared for the infiltration of the lab on Leucon. The area where they would be docking was a frozen wasteland. Regardless of the long hours devoted to planning, the trip had consisted of the happiest days of Jazon’s life. Tracy often looked up to find Jazon staring at her with a smile on his face.

Falling in love with Jazon had made it clear to Tracy how little she really knew. After earning her degree and having a relationship with Strass, she had thought herself to be knowledgeable and worldly. However, she had been blind to the truth and had allowed the preconceived and unfounded prejudices of others to influence her own perceptions. She was thankful that she hadn’t come to her senses too late. However, now she had a job to do. Lieutenant Vasco had taught her how to search the communications frequencies for the signature associated with the regeneration cloning serum they had been tracking. She documented each of the small quantities of the serum that arrived with the nanite shipments on Leucon from the distributor on Epopeus. They would pay for their culpability in her father’s death.

Tracy smiled. He hadn’t been able to sneak up on her since he had telepathically and empathically bound them together. It didn’t stop him from trying. “What gave me away this time?” Jazon asked.

“Well, I didn’t hear you or smell you. I didn’t sense your thoughts or see your reflection in the console.”

“Then, how did you know?”

Tracy swiveled her chair around and stood up to kiss her husband. “I could feel your love warming my back like a fire on a cold night.”

Jazon brought his lips down to Tracy’s and enjoyed the soft press of her lips to his.

“We’re heading out. I want you to stay onboard. When I get back, I’m the one who is going the need to be warmed up.”

“Be careful,” Tracy pleaded.

“I will. There’s nothing I want more than to return to you.”

Tracy watched as he left. Then, she allowed her mind to be consumed once again by her assignment.

Jazon, Agata, and Vasco blended in seamlessly with their surroundings. Their white gear covered them from head to toes. Snow fell quickly and concealed the tracks made by their gliders. The machines slid noiselessly to their agreed upon point of entry. The cloning facility was located far beneath Leucon’s surface beneath an ancient stone fortress. Their imaging technology had allowed their scans to penetrate the otherwise impregnable shielding surrounding the fortress above the illegal lab. They worked quickly to set up a modified mining drill. Anything stronger would register on internal security scans.

Vasco placed the shield stabilizer into the ground. He had attached it to a spike as protection against any possible seismic tremors that might occur and disrupt it. The pocket of shielding prevented cold air from rushing into the space they had just drilled into an airshaft. They had to trust that no guards would venture out into the blizzard to investigate the mound of snow that had begun to form around their shield.

Jazon dropped silently into the opening and took the packs Agata passed down to him. When the two inquisitors joined him, they crawled through the airshaft on their hands and knees until they arrived at the first vent opening. While Jazon scanned, Agata and Vasco removed their snow gear and stowed it in their packs. Then, Vasco dropped down into the restroom below. Jazon stowed his gear while Agata continued to scan for life signs. The facility was crawling with guards at the upper levels. Jazon and Agata dropped down to join Vasco.

The three men had to communicate with hand gestures. The Parvacs were skilled warriors, but they weren’t telepaths like his brothers. While they scanned with their technology, Jazon hunted with his mind. He found a blank spot and then another. It was almost as though the life forms wore neural blockers but not quite. The minds functioned but had no thoughts. Their minds were simply being used to control their bodies’ regulatory systems.

Jazon motioned, and they spread out with their weapons drawn. Jazon led them down two more levels using a set of ancient stone stairs. They made it down to the lab without being discovered. At the bottom of the stairs, they found a thick wall of plasti-glass. Jazon moved aside and provided cover while Vasco applied a dissolving enzyme to the wall in front of them. They had agreed it would be best to avoid security checks while entering the lab. Their goal was to amass as much information as possible and destroy the clones before either slipping out the way they had come or fighting their way out through the front. Vasco had made the hole in the plasti wall large enough for them to crawl through at floor level.

They remained crouched down low and close together. Jazon concentrated on keeping their minds hidden from the Laconian scientists present. He kept his back to Agata and Vasco. Vasco began hacking into the lab computers and downloading the contents of their amassed research and knowledge. In turn, Agata worked efficiently to send all of the data to their ship where an automatic encoding system transmitted all of the information to Inquisitor spy stations at unknown locations. Leucon was too distant for them to transmit their data directly to Parvac, and they didn’t trust the security of the relay system in Laconian space. If they were killed during their mission, it wouldn’t be for nothing.

Vasco and Agata were among the best operatives the Inquisitors had to offer. They completed their tasks faster than Jazon had expected. Each of them secured data chips with the copied files within their body armor. The armor had been embedded with force activated shielding. None of them would ever forget what Felix had done to General Luca Braga.

The things Jazon wanted to do to punish Felix made him a monster in his own mind, but he wasn’t alone in it. The team moved forward. Jazon realized the magnitude of his erroneous thinking on Aurilius. The lab where he had found Tracy was nothing in comparison to the one before him. The lab’s robotically operated equipment was enclosed in sterilized plasti-glass environments. Scientists controlled their work with vid-screens. The laboratory was huge.

Jazon and his team concealed themselves behind a large cryogenic freezer and watched the lab and its occupants through feedback from a miniature drone camera. Two naked, hairless clones of the former Ambassador Felix Jiri were attached to neural stimulators. From the mind of the scientist working with the clones, Jazon learned that he was attempting to download Felix’s memories and personality traits into their brains. Agata stared into Jazon’s eyes. He had his orders.

Concentrating on the clone farthest from the scientist, Jazon convinced its brain to stop breathing. Monitors began blaring throughout the lab. The scientist rushed to the clone, identified the problem, and attached the clone to a ventilator.

“Stop what you’re doing, or the girl dies screaming,” a man said through the lab’s communications system. “Did you think your ship’s defenses to be impregnable? Look around you. I’ve been expecting you since you took out the guards on Epopeus, Jazon Ponidi of the Omnes Videntes.”

Jazon released his psychic hold on the clone and allowed it to breathe. The monitors ceased their blaring and returned to a quieter level of discord.

“Good choice,” the man said.

Over each laboratory section, plasti containment walls lowered transforming the lab into a clear labyrinth. Each walled off section had a single palm scanner beside its entrance. Scientists placed their palms to the scan pads, were released, and evacuated by the guards who had spilled inside.

“I can’t leave them, not like this,” the lead scientist said. “He’ll kill them! Stanley was a fool! A fool! He never listened.” The scientist continued to mumble to himself.

Telepathically, Jazon asked his team, “Do we kill them or play along? I’m emotionally compromised.” He could hear Tracy’s gasp of pain through the communications system. Then, he could see through Tracy’s eyes the face of the guard who was squeezing her delicate arm with excessive force.

“Tell, your guard to stop hurting the female,” Jazon growled out in an almost unrecognizable voice.

Tracy was his. No one would touch her but him. Feral rage unlike anything he had ever known consumed him. Tracy screamed as the guard squeezed her arm tighter.

“I’m in charge here. You are a constructed tool, and I intend to use you from now on. You will obey me if you want her to live,” the man said.

Jazon continued to watch the guard through Tracy’s eyes, and something within him snapped. He channeled the force of his telepathic rage through Tracy and into her male aggressor. The man’s grip on Jazon’s female slipped free. He fell as seizures took him, and blood began to dribble from his nose. Only once before on Amphictyon had Jazon been enraged enough to kill in this manner.

“You are not in charge. I am not a tool. I’m a predator, and you are prey. With you is the only one who can ease my rage. If I lose her, each of you will die screaming, one by one. As you listen to each of your men screaming and watch as they die, each knowing that he could be next, you will know for certain that I am saving you for last. Should you allow her to be hurt again, you will not escape me.”

“Get away from her!” the man ordered just before the communications system went silent.

“That was effective,” Vasco said.

“Who is the lead scientist?” Captain Agata asked.

“The crazy one who keeps mumbling to himself,” Vasco answered.

“Lock him and the clones down. Destroy all of Felix Jiri’s genetic samples. Well, go get Tracy. Ready?” Agata asked.

“What about our mission and my emotional state?” Jazon asked.

“We are on our mission. We weren’t put on a timer. We can save the girl, kill the villains, capture the scientist, and destroy the clones. Right?” Agata asked. In that moment, Agata earned himself a friend.

“I won’t forget this,” Jazon swore.

“You have done many things that I will not forget. For one, you served on the team that brought Empress Neema home.” With that, he stood up, raised his weapon, and began a careful jog along the plasti-glass labyrinth. Jazon followed him.

The clear walls vibrated with the blasts fired by the guards. Agata took one of them down. The man left a red streak of his blood as he hit and slid down the clear wall panel. The murderous rage that had overtaken Jazon because of the threat to his mate meant nothing to Agata. The Inquisitors were trained to be brutal killers, sent out to bring justice and a swift death to the Empire’s enemies. They were a branch of the Parvac Empire’s military trained to spy, hunt, and execute. They were masters of disguise and torture. Jazon felt he could be himself with Agata and Vasco.

Out loud, he said, “It’s nice to have a friend, other than family.” Then, he blasted a soldier who was about to throw a pulse grenade at them. The combined blast and explosion made a mess. Jazon and Agata ducked.

“I feel the same,” Agata said with a nod of his head. Then, he brought his blade down across the throat of a coward who had hidden beneath a downed comrade.

Chapter Seven

Tracy cowered in the corner of the room. It had been converted into a modern-looking office. The fortress had been a clan home in centuries past, but had been converted into a secret cloning research facility. The people of Leucon would be outraged to learn of it. She stood behind a large, black, leather chair and tried to hide from the carnage. Tracy didn’t know who any of the men in the room were. A very wealthy Eriopis male was in charge. Based upon his mannerisms and speech patterns, she assumed he was a lord of the highest class. A few of his hired soldiers had taken the man Jazon had killed away. Tracy rubbed at her bruised arm and tried to make herself stop shaking. The man had been about to break her arm.

Most of the soldiers were human. Tracy wasn’t a strong telepath, but she could grasp the random thoughts around her if they were major concerns and if she concentrated hard enough. From what she could gather, the wealthy man in charge was determined to kill Jazon, Agata, and Vasco, and then relocate the cloning lab as quickly as possible. He was using her as bait. He wanted Jazon to come for her here. He had something horrible planned for her husband. Tracy couldn’t let that happen.

When the men had boarded the ship, Tracy had tried to hide in the storage pantry behind the kitchen, but they had found her. They wouldn’t find her this time. She shied away from them and over toward the bathroom. The man gave her a stern look before turning his attention back to his security monitors. He watched as Jazon and Agata shot their way through the soldiers who were attempting to kill them. The man had offered 500,000 credits for Jazon’s head. She had to steer him away from his present course in order to save him.

The family-style bathroom she entered had updated waste units, but the same sinks and fixtures typical of the architecture during the period of its construction. Near the communal showers, she found just what she had been hoping to find, but had tried to keep hidden within her mind. Before she had time to think or for her thoughts to be read, Tracy opened the shoot and climbed inside. Then, she was sliding down the metal tube at such a great speed that she didn’t have time to fear any of the creatures that may have made a home of it. With her eyes squeezed shut and her arms crossed over her, she dropped with a thud that stole her breath onto a large hard net. Tracy bounced a few times before the net stilled.

She laid back in relief and willed her mind to calm. Ancient mothers long gone must have insisted on the net for the sake of their adventurous children. She sent them silent thanks and willed Jazon to see where she was through her eyes.

He must have done so, because she heard him say in her mind, “Stay there.”

“Jazon! It’s a trap!” Tracy screamed to him.

“I know. Obey me. Stay there and hide. I love you.”

Then, he was gone from her thoughts. Tracy looked around the space. She assumed it was the lowest level and that the laundry shoots also functioned in case of an attack as a means of escape for children and any female who was as small as she was. On the stone wall to her left, pipes ran down from above. Snow melt dribbled from them to collect in shallow stone pools. Overflow trickled from the pools into stone gutters that fed an underground river. A sturdy grate prevented entrance into that area. When the snows melted, the river must pose a danger. Tracy moved away from the net and washing pools to find a place to hide.

Lieutenant Vasco scanned the cloning laboratory for Felix Jiri’s genetic code. The two fully developed clones gave off strong signals. However, weak matches came from within the cryogenic freezer and from a lower level of the fortress. The lead scientist continued in his attempts to resuscitate the clone Jazon had telepathically attacked. Vasco approached him and aimed his blaster at the old man.

“Unlock the cryogenic freezer. Now.”

Frantically, the scientist said, “I must save him! Don’t you see? That fellow has done something to him. He’ll die if I don’t save him!” The man was old, had solid white hair, and the solid black eyes of an Eriopis.

Vasco shot the clone.

“No! You monster! What have you done?”

“Open the cryogenic freezer,” Vasco said as he took aim at the other clone.

“No! Please! I’ll do it. Just don’t hurt him! Please! He’s just an infant. He can’t hurt you.” On shaky feet, the old man got up with tears in his eyes and shuffled over to the freezer.

Vasco pulled out all of Felix’s genetic samples and destroyed them with a dissolving agent.

“You’re a Parvac soldier. You’ve come to destroy the threat. It’s not this clone you must destroy but the neural transfer assembly. Without the transfer of memories and implantation of a goal, my boys are harmless.”

“Show me the device of which you speak,” Vasco ordered.

The scientist shuffled over to exam beds that were arranged radially around a spherical device. Wires and electrodes passed from within it to the exam beds. Vasco took recordings of the device before coating it with the same enzyme he had used to dissolve the plasti-glass. Soon, the telepathic interface was sludge on the floor. The enzymes then neutralized and turned to powder.

“Where are the other clones?” Vasco asked.

The old man shook his head. “They didn’t turn out very well. We are awaiting orders from Lord Jiri as to what to do with them.”

“Explain.”

“We received a batch of growth serum that was supposed to speed up the rate of cloned tissue regeneration. It was sold to us for an exorbitant sum and with grandiose promises. In theory, it seemed plausible. However, the application created unfortunate side effects. The clones grew at an accelerated rate as promised, but they were dangerous, violent, and cunning. This was without the memory transfer, mind you. The four of them continued to develop, and as they did, behaved more like pack animals. Mentally, after learning to feed and care for themselves, their minds became developmentally stagnated.”

“So, there are a total of five of Jiri’s clones living?”

“Correct.”

“Are there any others?” Vasco asked.

The old man shuffled over to a console where a program was running. “I created two clones who were perfect. One was only meant to be an emergency precaution, but I raised both boys. All of that effort, and Lord Jiri allowed them to be destroyed. Their lives were so short.” The old man wiped at his eyes.

“Other than the six clones in this facility, are there any others?”

“No, they have been killed,” the scientist said sadly.

“Vasco,” Agata said through his communications link.

“Yes, sir.”

“Secure your prisoner. Tracy escaped and is on the lowest level. Go get her.”

“Understood.”

“Oh, that’s not good. That isn’t good at all,” the old man said. “We put the clones down there. They were causing havoc up here. There is plenty of fresh water on the lowest level, and food is taken to them five times a day.”

“Why are they still breathing?”

“They have been paid for.”

Vasco aimed his blaster at the clone that still lived.

“No! No! Please, don’t!” He held up his hands. “I’ve answered your questions. Please, don’t kill him. He has the mind of an infant. Please.”

“Take him and get in there with him,” Vasco said of a plasti-glass enclosed space. It contained exam beds but no communications. “If you attempt to leave, this device will explode. Both of you will die.” Vasco attached a modified shield to the door that would only open with a code shared by his team. Then, Vasco checked his weapons and ran for the stairs.

The ceiling of the underground area was supported by stone pillars that had been reinforced with metal beams. The ceiling far above her head appeared to have been carved from solid stone. Like most of the ancient clan homes in this sector, the fortress had been constructed of stone. Far in the distance, a dim emergency light shone above an alcove where a set of stone steps led upward. If the mercenaries came down to retrieve her, that would be the direction from which they came. With portable light sources, they would be able to spot her easily. She needed a place to hide.

Trying to stay in the deep shadows, she walked back to the netting and began at the wall, walking clockwise and counting her steps. Had anyone been on the stairs, one of the large pillars would have hidden her drop from the laundry shoot. As she walked by the stone wash basin, she could feel the chill coming off of the water. The basins were filled by the pipes leading up to the surface. Snow fell into a large main drainpipe and melted on its way down from several levels above. It was a common practice amongst the frozen planets in the sector. She hoped that no dangerous animals had found their ways inside in search of warmth.

Even being so far below the frozen surface, Tracy was cold. At least the men who had taken her from the ship had encouraged her to dress warmly before kidnapping her. The land port workers of Leucon had done nothing to interfere. Apparently, the extremely wealthy had carte blanche with their behavior toward others. Tracy walked around the ancient laundry washing basin careful to keep her hand against the stone wall. She placed her left hand on the cold stone arch above the grated entrance to the underground lake and stepped over the gutter that carried a stream of overflow inside of it. Peering into the darkness, she couldn’t see how far either the stone gutter or flooring continued inside of the cave-like entrance. The air from the underground river felt considerably colder and made her shiver.

To her right, she saw another pillar off in the darkness. Finding herself in its shadow, she looked toward the stairs far to her right near what she thought must be a corner. Instinct made her long for the light. The eerie feeling that she was being watched made her hair stand on end. Tracy came to a corner that angled off into total darkness. A few feet in front of her on the left were old wooden crates that were stacked against the stone wall. Slowly walking around them, she strained to see.

Telepathically, she felt something there, and then she saw it. A flash of white came toward her making her jump and her heart pound. It was a man. His arms and chest were bare exposing skin paler than her own. As he came closer, Tracy could see the brown hair and eyes of a Parvac. This must be one of the clones Jazon hunted. However, the clone’s eyes had a wrongness to them which spurred her to reach out with her weak telepathic abilities. What she sensed made her turn around and run for the lighted stairs.

Tracy could hear the clone’s bare feet slapping against the stone floor as he ran after her. He wasn’t as fast as Tracy. She ran past a set of generators and another stone pillar before making it to the alcove where the stairs were located. She began running up the steps hoping that one of the guards had come to capture her. Instead, white arms loomed out at her from the darkness of the steps above.

Tracy screamed and dropped into a crouch. The arms that had made a grab for her clutched at nothing. Tracy felt a foot hit her ribs as the clone tripped over her huddled body and fell. She looked up. Another clone, grinning so that she could see most of his teeth, ran down the stairs toward her. Quickly, she stood, turned, and ran back the way she had come. She tried to jump over the clone that had fallen, but it caught her left ankle.

With a panicked scream, she kicked herself free and scrambled away on her hands and knees. She ran past the groping hands of the first clone that had been chasing her. The wall by the stairs was stacked high with storage crates. Tracy paused long enough to toppled several of them behind her. She raced past a table, strewn with empty food containers, and four chairs. Beside the messy dining area were four unmade cots. A small room in the far corner contained a waste unit and shower. It reeked of urine, and the door had been broken off.

Tracy screamed as a clone jumped out at her from behind a pillar. She could hear the disjointed slap of feet on stone as the other clones converged on her. She fought against the clone’s groping hands. He grunted behind her and began to hump at her back with his erection. Disgusted, Tracy drove her elbow into his sternum, brought the heel of her boot down on his toes, and broke free of his hold.

She ran at full speed to the net that had caught her fall. She climbed onto it and tried to bounce enough to get back into the laundry shoot, but it was too high and slippery. Excited yelling from four clones followed behind and grew closer. Tracy jumped down from the net with the intention of making another run for the stairs.

However, the clones spread out to block her, so she ran in the opposite direction and the darkest section that was around the angled left corner. Tracy climbed up the old wooden storage chests and willed her frantic breathing to slow. She felt like a small mouse trapped in a cage with four feral cats. The clones hunted for her. She watched them from her shadowed perch. They didn’t think to look up. That was when Tracy say a pair of eyes watching her from a foot away. Tracy screamed. The rat screeched back at her and leaped from the boxes to the stone floor. The clones yelled in excitement and began chasing the rat.

Well, three of them ran after the frightened creature. One set of eyes stared up at her from a few feet below. He began tearing the wooden boxes free of the stack. When Tracy was left crouching on one wobbly tower, she jumped free. The crates toppled down beside her. She ran for the grate that hid the underground river. Determined to squeeze through, she got her head and then right arm and shoulder through the cold metal bars. Then, when she was struggling to get her hips through, her waistband got caught on the metal.

The clone grabbed her ankles and tried to pull her back out. Tracy pushed against the bars with her hands, and her elbows locked. Then, she grabbed at the ground beneath her for leverage. Her fingers clasped at a rock. She threw it at the clone, but it hit the grate and bounced off. Tracy picked it up and tried again. This time, it flew through and hit him on the forehead. His release of her ankles combined with her pushing against the bars was enough to free her. The clone screamed furiously that his new toy had gotten away.

Tracy scrambled out of his reach and tried to catch her breath. Moments later, the terrified rat joined her and scurried off into the freezing water. Tracy stared at the clone. His brothers, having followed the rat, had joined him. There was no humanity in their eyes, Parvac or otherwise. There was only an animalistic instinct to satisfy basic needs. They began tugging at the grate. Tracy didn’t think they had the strength to pull it free, but she wasn’t a betting woman.

Rats were survivalists. If the rodent’s instincts had led it to run along the underground river, Tracy was going to trust it. Perhaps, if she were out of the clones’ sight, they would lose interest in her. The ground beneath her was formed of hewn stone. Tracy began a careful jog beside the open gutter that carried the snow melt back to a water source. Soon, a fine gravel replaced the stone underfoot. Then, it became jagged rock and sandy clay.

Tracy had followed the drainage system into an underground cave. There weren’t as many rats as she had feared. Her eyes had become accustomed to the darkness. It was a benefit of having grown up on Aurilius with its feeble light. She was cold, but her occasional stumbles made her hesitant to put her hands into her pockets. So far, she hadn’t found a good place to hide.

Clangs against the metal grate and frustrated yells continued to reach her ears and drove her slowly forward. Jazon had been silent in her mind, and she feared more for him than for herself. The skin of her stomach burned. Wetting her hands in the stream, she drank the cold clean water and took a few minutes to rest. She couldn’t see the skin around her hips but assumed it was torn. She pressed her wet palms to her burning skin to soothe it. The stitch in her side had forced her to take a seat, and the cold ground seeped into her through her pants. Tracy’s own panic threatened to strike her at any moment. What if the cave became smaller and narrower, leaving her trapped and cornered? Her education rescued her and forced her fears back. Based upon the age of the fortress and the effects of erosion, it was far more likely that an opening awaited her discovery. The rats had to have a way in and out. Furthermore, Jazon was a highly-skilled warrior, a telepath, and would overcome any obstacles placed in his path. He had told her to hide. He had claimed her as his first wife and would come for her. Tracy just needed to hide and wait.

A loud clanking and clattering of metal followed by barely articulate cheers had Tracy getting wearily to her feet. The clones had torn down the metal grate. Slowly, she trudged along, letting the trickle of water in the small stream guide her. Maybe the clones would go the wrong way or get distracted and forget about her. Tracy sped up as a frigid breeze encouraged her forward. Behind her, she could hear feet splashing in the freezing stream. The clones didn’t have enough sense to keep their bare feet out of the water.

Faint light began to cast some illumination upon her surroundings. She lowered her head in time to avoid an area of rock that jutted down above her. Scattered haphazardly around the cave floor and made visible by the ever-growing light were white, skeletal remains of rats and other animals. Trepidation grew within Tracy. Cautiously, she reached the mouth of the cave where the water trickled down and away. Large conifers provided some shelter from the cold wind.

Tracy held her arms around herself while watching snow-covered boughs lift and fall in the raging blizzard. Snowflakes swirled in the air in front of her. In this weather and without proper clothing, it would be certain death to leave the cave. However, she might be able to trick the clones into thinking she had left. If they followed her, she could wait and then run back to the washroom and up the stairs.

Then, she heard a snuffling sound and the crunch of snow out beyond the cave. Fear froze Tracy more effectively than the heavily falling snow or the clones chasing behind her. The four clones seemed harmless in comparison to what she now believed waited just a few feet away. A loud huffing grunt rumbled from deep within what sounded like a massive body. Quietly, Tracy began backing away. Gleeful male sounds converged on her as the clones grabbed her and sniffed at her, feeling her hair and attempting a game of tug of war with her arms.

“Hush! Run back!” Tracy whispered to them in terror.

They were loud, aggressive, and didn’t pay her words any heed. Tracy tried to shrug them off. She could hear the ice bear sniffing at the wind. Panic washed over her. She was bleeding around her hips from the grate. It could smell her. The loud roar it made had Tracy trying to dash back the way she had come, but the clones refused to release her. They didn’t understand being hunted. They only enjoyed being hunters.

Mindless of the cold and wearing only pants, one of the clones stupidly walked to the entrance to investigate. The mighty roar that followed blew the clone’s short brown hair back. Before he could run, a massive claw swiped at him. The force of the blow sent his body thudding against the cave entrance. The clones released her and stupidly ran to their brother.

“No! Come back! Hurry!” Tracy yelled futilely after them. She heard a second roar in the distance. She jumped when a hand grabbed her elbow.

It was Lieutenant Vasco. With his eyes, he willed her to follow and obey. He darted to the cave entrance with his blasters leading the way. Tracy stayed no more than two steps behind him. He went to the right. Tracy shivered and felt her extremities beginning to freeze. She tried not to look at the red slushy snow they were leaving behind in front of the cave. The last of the three remaining clones had tried to run, but the ice bear put its massive clawed paw to his back and knocked him down. The clone screamed as the ice bear opened its huge mouth and crushed the clone’s head, silencing it. Tracy began to wretch.

Vasco grabbed her wrist and pulled her along the side of the mountain. The ground shook beneath them, and snow fell from the trees as a second ice bear charged toward them. It had been enticed by the roars of its brother and the smell of fresh, warm blood. Tracy closed her eyes and whimpered. She had to open them as Vasco tugged her forward and wedged her into a rocky crevice. He followed behind her. Tracy clawed with frozen fingers at the snow and rocks trying to wedge herself in deeper. Tracy was wedged in sideways. She hoped Vasco had wedged himself in enough to remain safe.

The ice bear was so close that Tracy could see the cold air coming out of its black nose and the white hair covering its rounded ears. It opened its mouth and roared revealing long, sharp, yellowed incisors. Terrified tears froze on Tracy’s cheeks. Vasco fired a blast into the ice bear’s mouth. The huge beast sneezed. Suddenly, the sounds of blaster fire filled the air as Vasco began firing in rapid succession. Another roar echoed in the distance.

“We need some help down here. Three and no cover,” Vasco said into his communications piece. He continued firing blast after blast to keep the angry ice bear away. It roared in fury. Tracy’s hands and feet had gone numb, but she felt warmer. She was just so tired. “Hey! Stay awake!” Vasco yelled. He jostled her with his leg as he moved back to avoid the heavy swipe of a clawed paw.

Blaster shots echoed around them. Tracy’s fear vanished, and all of her thoughts focused with stunning clarity upon the snowflakes that drifted down around her. Vasco dropped a blaster and caught a rifle that flew through the air to him. Tracy rested the side of her head to the cliff wall and watched another snowflake fall. Understanding of the sounds and activities around her were hidden from her mind. Then, Jazon was there. He removed his jacket and sealed her within its warmth. Then, her face was hidden against his neck as he lifted her into his arms and carried her back inside of the cave.

She must have slept because Jazon was saying, “Go through, and I’ll pass her to you.”

Then, Vasco was holding her.

The next thing she knew, she and Jazon were naked in a warm bath. “There you go. I’ve got you, Tracy. Can you feel your fingers?”

It took a few moments before she could answer. Gingerly, she moved them. “Yes.”

“Good. I was worried you would freeze before I could get to you.”

“What happened?” Tracy asked.

Jazon drained the tub. It had been hewn from a tree trunk and made smooth with use. Jazon stood with her in his arms, stepped from the tub, and laid her down on a thick blanket. Then, he began to briskly dry her with towels. A large fire burned in the fireplace and gave the room its only illumination. After quickly drying himself, he carried her to a nest of blankets before the fire.

“Rest, Tracy. I’ll tell you all about it in a little while.” He gave her mind a gentle push. Tracy yawned against his chest and slept. Through the ear she had pressed to Jazon’s chest, she heard him say, “Thanks,” to someone.

Jazon was holding her close. She was warm and safe cuddled against him beneath thick blankets. Her head throbbed. “Now, will you tell me what happened?”

“After you eat something.” Sitting up, Jazon pulled Tracy up with him. He pulled her back against his chest. Then, he placed a hot bowl of thick stew in her hands. “Eat all of that,” he ordered.

After consuming the last bite, Tracy said, “I didn’t realize how hungry I was.”

“Wait a moment,” Jazon said. Tracy realized that he had spoken those words into a communications device. “Tracy, you should be safe in here. There is a waste unit behind that screen, and there are rations and dry clothes in this pack. I’m leaving you a blaster. Outside, the blizzard has made leaving impossible. We have the hired mercenaries trapped two levels up. Their employer tried to leave in the shuttle that brought you here from the land port. It went down because of visibility issues. We’ve tracked him. He plans to hide in the nearby forest until he can fly out of here. We will capture him and bring him back. Please, try to remain in this room.” Jazon dressed quickly. “Activate this shield once I close the door,” he said as he left.

Chapter Eight

Clutching a blanket to her chest, Tracy did as he asked. Then, she made use of the waste unit. Her hips were scratched and bruised but had been cleaned and bandaged. She dressed in clothing from Jazon’s pack, a black long-sleeved thermal shirt with matching elastic-waisted pants, and a pair of thick socks. Her boots and clothing were drying by the fire. Thoughts of the ice bears and the clones made her shudder.

She looked around the clean room. It had been used recently. She could tell because of the logs stacked by the fireplace and the addition of the portable waste unit. Jazon must have appropriated its use from one of the mercenaries. Tracy grabbed Jazon’s blaster and fastened its holster around her waist, adjusting it so it didn’t touch her scrapes. The clones had unnerved her more than her husband was letting her realize.

She could hear Jaimie now. “Tracy, tell me all about your honeymoon! Did he take you to Sinope? That’s where I’m going with my husband.”

“No, we spent our honeymoon fleeing from clones, ice bears, and mercenaries, but thanks for asking.” With a sigh, Tracy sat on the pile of furs and wrapped the blankets around herself.

“Hello? Are you there? Can you hear me?” asked an unassuming older man through a communications system Tracy hadn’t noticed.

She got up and walked over to the wall panel beside the door and accepted the call. An old man with white hair appeared.

“Aww, hello there, dear. I knew I sensed another mind somewhere nearby.”

“Who are you?” Tracy asked.

“I am Dr. Arellano.”

Tracy stared at his solid black eyes and then at the white bushy eyebrows above them. “Are you the one responsible for creating the clones?”

“Why yes. Yes, I am,” Dr. Arellano said. “Yes, I heard you trapped yourself down with the boys, the ones who ran into some developmental difficulties.”

Tracy’s eyes bulged. “They hunted me and acted like they were going to rip me apart so they could each have their own limb with which to play.”

“Yes, well, I’m terribly sorry about that. You see. We were sold a serum that promised to accelerate the regeneration of cellular growth. It didn’t work as promised.” Dr. Arellano looked around him with apparent worry on his features. “No, no. You stay right there where daddy can watch you. That’s a good boy,” he said to a clone that smiled sweetly at him.

Tracy shuddered.

Noticing, Dr. Arellano said, “It’s alright. He won’t hurt you. Mentally, he is a small child, and the memory transfer apparatus has been destroyed.”

“What makes you think he won’t turn feral like the others?”

He made his white eyebrows move up his forehead. “Well, there’s no more of that blasted serum for one thing.”

“Was it made to replicate the sea star’s ability to differentiate stem cells?” Tracy asked.

He looked at her with surprise. “Why, yes.”

Tracy calmed herself with a deep breath. “My father was killed for his research. He would be glad it wasn’t successfully used for such a vile corruption of nature.”

“That very well may be so. However, in an attempt to recuperate some his financial losses accrued with the purchase of the serum, Lord Ajani has attempted to weaponize it, make it into a chemical weapon. He tested it a few hours ago in an attempt to neutralize the hybrid and the Parvac soldiers. The weapon did not perform as planned.” Dr. Arellano was startled by something that hit the plasti wall of his containment room.

When the occurrence happened again, but at the glass directly behind the doctor where Tracy had the misfortune of seeing it, Tracy gasped. A soldier with half of his skull missing ran into the clear wall again. He left dark-red smears behind to prove he wasn’t a nightmare. Chills ran along Tracy’s skin.

“Aww, yes. Do you see? Lord Ajani released his chemical weapon. However, instead of making the victim’s cells shut down, the cells healed the virus used to weaponize them from within the dispersal unit. In the moments they were airborne, the cells found hosts in the dead. You see, they find living tissue to be an inhospitable environment. They began sending orders to cells and healing the ruined tissues. The deceased soldiers have begun to rise and continue to heal. However, their souls, motivations, and their very minds have gone to the afterlife. They should die again on their own in a week or so, but my young charge and I won’t last that long in here without food or water. Also, I have observed that these subjects seem to display the same violent tendencies expressed in their last moments.”

Tracy jumped again at the sound of blaster fire.

“Yes, indeed. That is the case,” Dr. Arellano said.

“Well, what do you expect me to do about it?”

“Perhaps, you could ask one of those fellows with you to come to my lab and gather a few things for me. I believe I can neutralize the effects before the situation progresses.”

“Progresses how? I thought you said they would die in a week.”

Absently, he said, “Yes, unless the cells again mutate which begins to appear like a distinct possibility.”

Tracy watched in horror as one of the risen, dead mercenaries began to eat from the wound of one of his former team members. “Excuse me,” she said.  She went to the waste unit and lost the stew she had eaten.

When she returned to the small wall link, Dr. Arellano didn’t give her a chance to speak. Instead, he rushed to say, “Yes, it would be wise of you to bring help. If they are driven to feed themselves through cannibalism, they won’t die in a week and will become increasingly insane. Be careful, they may have been left where they fell. This virus must be contained. To unleash something of this nature on Leucon would create a plague.”

Tracy stood there. She was afraid and wanted nothing more than to huddle in fear in front of the fire.

“Heintz, is it?” Dr. Arellano asked. Tracy looked up at him. “We have an opportunity to end this corruption of your father’s work, but we must act quickly before it further mutates. Will you work with me? Think of what will happen if this gets out. Hopefully, the freezing temperatures outside will help to contain the virus for now. I need samples, but I’m trapped within this containment room and have been unsuccessful in my attempts to override the shielding. It took a great deal of ingenuity to establish this link. Will you help me, or not?”

“Can’t you ask the soldiers who are working for you for help?”

“No, their communications have been deactivated. I tried to contact them before searching for sentience elsewhere.” Dr. Arellano rubbed tiredly at his eyes. The motion sent his bushy white eyebrows going in different directions.

Tracy tried to reach out telepathically to Jazon, but his mind was shielded while he hunted for Lord Ajani, who was also a telepath. “I’ll try to help. Leave this channel open. When Jazon returns, he will want an explanation.” Tracy grabbed her damp boots. “What am I doing?” Tracy asked herself.

Jazon had told her that the remaining mercenaries were two levels above her. She had to get up to them, free them, and get their help. Otherwise, she wouldn’t make it past the reanimated guards in the lab. Suddenly terrified of what could be waiting on the other side of her door, Tracy kept the blaster in her hand as she deactivated the shield and peeked outside. She didn’t see or hear anyone.

Jazon, Vasco, and Agata geared up and took their gliders out onto the snow, pushing the machines to travel as quickly as possible in the snowstorm. Vasco had linked their wrist-coms with tracking devices, so fear of becoming lost wasn’t an issue. With the suits they wore, freezing wasn’t an option either. With proper environmental modifications, the suits could be worn in space. Agata took the lead once his scanner pinged on the shuttle’s location. They wanted to take Newlin Ajani alive. The man would be like a gift to Parvac’s inquisitors. As far as Jazon knew, Newlin had been in recent communication with Felix, the traitorous bastard. Through a thorough questioning of Newlin and search of his communications, they might be able to discover Felix’s last know location.

Specks of snow hit Jazon’s mask and stuck to it before melting and becoming horizontal streaks that marred his already obscured vision. He would have to keep a firm control of himself not to kill Newlin. The piece of shit had taken Tracy, his wife, off of his starship, with the intent of using her to control him before selling her to Lord Radford for his pathetic, cowardly, little puke of a son.

“I’m gonna kick Lord Radford’s ass first. Then, I’m gonna put Strass over my knee and spank him. He’s not man enough for a proper beating.” Jazon nodded to himself.

“I wouldn’t mind observing. It sounds intriguing,” Vasco said.

“No problem. We’ll stop on Aurilius on the way home. Tracy may want to pack her things.”

“One mile ahead,” Agata reported. Leaving their gliders, they ghosted in. A loud, angry roar had the three men looking at each other. “Another one? They’ve really let the population get out of control,” Agata commented.

“Yes, and they are starving. There isn’t enough prey to sustain so many large male predators. Males will think nothing of eating unprotected cubs, too. We better take him down quick,” Jazon said.

“It’s a good thing everyone likes ice bear,” Vasco said.

“Say, we each get a hide. Correct?” Agata asked.

“Yes, but we need to hire a processor before we leave,” Jazon said.

“I will present my wife with an ice bear rug. All of the ladies are envious of them because the Princess has them,” Agata said.

“Tracy is getting a coat and boots out of mine.”

The large male ice bear stood on his massive hindlegs and pushed at the shuttle with his front paws, rocking it. The shaggy hair on his hindquarters swayed with his movements. Agata and Vasco began firing at it. Then, a second one joined his brother, but from behind them. Jazon had sensed the ice bear’s approach. He turned and took aim at the massive beast that charged at them. Its mouth was open on a deep growl that seemed to journey from its tail and out past its thick sharp incisors. Taking careful aim for as quick of a kill as possible, Jazon aimed his blaster rifle at the ice bear and fired.

While the men were distracted by putting down the ferocious animals, the mercenaries from within the shuttle emerged and struck. Leaving the ice bears to the inquisitors, Jazon began stalking the more dangerous prey. One of the mercenaries tracked their heat signatures. Jazon laid on his belly, concealed by a pile of fresh snow, took aim with his sniper blaster, and shot the device from the merc’s hands. Pieces of the tech flew with the man backwards and scattered about him in the snow.

Another soldier attempted to surprise him from behind. Twisting in the snow, Jazon moved to the side, grabbed the barrel of the blaster that had been aimed at his head, and drove it up into the man’s shoulder. An ice bear roared in fury as it charged through the trees to the right of them. The merc pulled a knife. He slashed down with the speed of an ice bear’s claws. Jazon caught the edge of the blade with his rifle and kicked out with his right foot. His kick sent snow swirling up in a blinding white cloud. While his opponent was disoriented, Jazon was not. He used his senses to disarm his opponent, but he didn’t kill him. This one could be turned for the right price.

“Ready to renegotiate?” Jazon asked through his mask.

A short time later, the lure of credits along with their continued existences had inspired the mercenaries to change employers. Newlin Ajani was livid. Jazon smiled at him from within the shuttle. Jazon’s four hired mercenaries harnessed the ice bears to the shuttle. Agata had Newlin in restraints, and Jazon had already begun sifting through the man’s mind.

“So, Jarreau screwed you over?” Jazon asked.

“He and his partner both did. Their serum, which seemed so promising, has destroyed years of hard work.”

“Yes, but the four clones locked in the basement served as a tasty distraction for the ice bears that almost ate Tracy,” Jazon said.

“The girl was never meant to be in any danger. I learned what Jarreau did to her father. I had nothing to do with that.”

“Right. You just keep supplying clones to Felix Jiri,” Jazon said.

“Yes, I have and hoped to continue to do so. The Laconian universities and research facilities refuse to endorse cloning experimentation, just as they condemn the creation of hybrid children. Dr. Arellano and I put Lord Jiri’s funding to good use.”

“Why clones? Nanite technology can repair tissue damage.”

“Repair, yes. However, if a person were to lose a leg, nanites would be useless.”

“So, you want to use clones for body parts? That seems cruel even to me.”

“No, our intention was never to grow an entire being. We work to regrow and replace organs. Lord Jiri offered us funding in return for clones of himself, not of any other individual. We would have refused such a proposition. However, he required replicas of his own body.”

“Taking us up,” Agata said. He flew slowly and low to the ground since the shuttle was towing ice bears behind it. The mercenaries followed on the gliders.

“Who is Duran Jarreau’s partner?” Jazon asked.

“I don’t know.”

“Is it Lord Radford of Aurilius?”

“Who?”

Jazon exchanged a look with Lieutenant Vasco. Newlin Ajani didn’t know anyone with the name Radford.

“Something is very wrong,” Jazon said as they approached the fortress.

Chapter Nine

Quietly, Tracy closed the door behind her. She was alone in the hall. The floors and walls were made of stone, but a long, frayed rug ran the length of it and muffled her steps. Over the years, the rug had faded from a vibrant red to a dark pink. The pattern of yellow scrolling around its edges had small brown pinecones and needles of green at intervals. Tracy knew she was focusing on minutia to ease her terror.

A few weeks ago, the only thing that could have made the moment more frightening would have been if a Laconian hybrid soldier had jumped out at her from behind one of the heavy, closed, wooden doors that she walked past. However now, she hoped her hybrid warrior would show up, scold her, and send her back to her room. Then, he would promise to make everything right.

Meanwhile, the blaster trembled in her hand. When she was nervous, her mouth watered. She swallowed and tried to decide between the stairs and the lift. The clones had made her afraid of stairs. The thought of a dead gooey soldier grasping at her in the dark stairwell made her shudder. Tracy decided to go up in the lift. The lift might be harder for a walking corpse to operate, unless he had died inside of it.

Looking all around her, she pushed the button and quickly backed up in case something was inside. When the door opened and it was clean and empty inside, Tracy almost cried. She hurried inside of the lift and pressed the command to take her to the fifth floor. Terror seized her again before the door opened. When it did and she saw angry mercenaries pacing in front of a containment shield, she did let out an involuntary cry of relief. They looked surprised when she rushed forward. She recognized one of the men who had taken her from Jazon’s ship.

“Thank the stars! How do I lower this?”

“We don’t know, or we would have done it. Why are you trying to get us out?”

Tracy was too frantic to answer. On a whim, she entered 31215145 to lower the shield. It worked. A hysterical giggle escaped her at Jazon’s odd sense of humor. “There’s no time to waste. Dr. Arellano called me for help. Where are your weapons? You need lots of weapons!”

A mercenary grabbed her by the arms. At that moment, something came out of the stairwell.

“Tommy?” a man asked. “Shit! What the fuck?” he yelled. Blaster fire had left a gaping hole in Tommy’s side that wasn’t bleeding.

“It’s the weapon your boss used! Tommy’s dead! Hurry! We have to get to the lab!” Tracy said. The man holding her arms let go of her.

The other man said, “No, this is a trick. Tommy, I’m coming for you, buddy. Stay right there. You’ll be good as new in no time.”

“No! They are dangerous! Come back!” Tracy warned.

The mercenary flipped her off and kept walking. Tracy backed up and hid behind the biggest mercenary who she could find. She clutched at the back of his shirt with her pinkies and regretted that her hands were full.

“Please, you have to stop him! Talk to Dr. Arellano before you do anything!”

They didn’t listen.

“Tommy?” the mercenary asked as he got closer. Tommy lunged for the man’s throat with a hungry growl. The man’s foot whipped up and kicked Tommy away. His reanimated friend fell backwards down the stairs. He turned and walked back to the group. “Well, there might be something to what she says. I reckon.”

“Here,” Tracy said as she gave the big man she was hiding behind her blaster. “Just don’t leave me. The one in the lab started eating one of the other ones. Dr. Arellano thinks he can make an antidote, but he needs our help.”

“Climb onto my back. I’ll get you to the lab. It’ll be okay,” the big man said.

Tracy handed the shielding device to someone else so she could cling to the man’s back. Tommy was crawling back up the stairs.

“Alright. Gear up. Watch your buddy’s back.”

The men grabbed chair legs and anything else that could be used as a weapon. Then, they moved as a group along the hall. There were only six men. She had hoped for thirty or so.

“Not so tight, darling.”

“Sorry,” Tracy said. The last thing she wanted to do was choke the nice mercenary who was giving her a ride on his back.

The soldiers exchanged their makeshift clubs for blasters as they walked, finding them where they had been forced to drop them.

“Lord Ajani left you here to die. I’ll pay you a hundred credits each to work for me instead,” Tracy offered.

Quiet male laughter rumbled around her. “That’s quite the offer, Miss.”

“Yes, that’s what I have saved up for my first semester’s rent. What do you say? Is it a deal?”

“Sure thing, darling,” one of the men said.

“So, you won’t leave me?” Tracy asked.

“Wouldn’t think of it,” he answered.

A crazed dead man with a single hole through his heart ran at them with his mouth open, a silent scream on his lips. Tracy dug her fingers into the shoulders of the man carrying her and squeezed her legs around his waist. The men fired their blasters until their former comrade was dead once more.

“I can’t breathe,” the man said.

“I’m sorry,” Tracy said as she loosened her grip. She whimpered as the team of mercenaries began jogging down a set of stairs.

“Close your eyes,” the man told her.

She squeezed her eyes shut and hid her face between his shoulder blades. She heard blaster shots, strange noises, and men shouting orders. She could feel the man moving down stairs and clutched at him when his motions started to make her slip.

“Here! Put her in here!” Dr. Arellano said.

The man carrying her stopped moving long enough to say, “Down you go.” Terrified of letting go, Tracy felt someone removing her from the man’s back.

“Here. Use this,” a man said as he thrust Tracy’s shield to Dr. Arellano. Then, he closed the plasti-glass door.

Dr. Arellano activated the shield. “Good work, Tracy! I’m proud of you,” he said.

Tracy held her hands together to make them stop shaking. She watched from within the containment room as soldiers hunted in pairs. They flushed dead soldiers out of hiding and with the use of low-level blasts, herded them into another containment room and sealed them within it. Tracy gagged. The dead men had begun biting each other.

“Look over here. Look at me. Good. Now, I need your help again. Alright?” Tracy took shuddering breaths as she looked at the old man. He smiled at her. She felt him shielding her thoughts as her father had done when she was frightened as a child. “Tracy, have you ever babysat?”

The question threw her off, but she nodded and said, “My brothers.”

“Good. I need you to babysit this boy.” Dr. Arellano patted the clone. The clone to whom Dr. Arellano referred as a boy, wore pajamas, a robe, and slippers. However, the boy was in the body of a full-grown Parvac male, one who looked exactly like the clones from the ancient laundry room.

“They were going to kill me down there.”

“Tracy, he is different and only newly wakened. Sense him with your mind. Tell me what you find.” She reached out telepathically. The mind before her was intrigued by dark colors and shapes, like a baby. “See?” Dr. Arellano asked. “Just keep him in his seat and play with him. I won’t be far. Set the shield again once I’m out of the room.”

Tracy did as he asked. The soldiers were busy trying to account for their numbers. The clone began to fuss. Tracy saw a box of toys and handed him a stuffed animal. He held it close to his face and then put it in his mouth. “This day just keeps getting creepier. Yes, it does,” she said in the tone of voice she had used with her brothers when they were little.

The clone threw down the toy, so she handed him a rattle. That got his attention. Tracy screamed and pointed. A cryogenic freezer drawer had opened, and a clone emerged. Dr. Arellano shook his head sadly from where he had begun work on an antidote. The soldiers shut and locked the drawer with the clone inside.

“I thought the cold would stop it!” Tracy yelled to him through the plasti-glass.

Dr. Arellano said something to one of the mercenaries. The man walked over to her and tapped on the plasti-glass door. “Let me in. He needs your help.”

Tracy deactivated the shield. “My help?”

The man shrugged at her and took over playing with the clone to keep it calm. Tracy rushed over to the relative safety of the doctor where he worked. “The serum was based upon your father’s research with sea stars. Correct?”

“Yes, sir.”

“To stop this, I need your help. What will destroy their ability to regenerate?”

“Disruption in their stem cells. If they don’t get the command to regenerate, they remain dormant.”

Dr. Arellano stared off at nothing for long moments. Then, he got to work. While he worked, he mumbled to Tracy to bring him different items. Unlike the mercenary who had been assisting him earlier, Tracy knew what those things were. When a familiar mind brushed against her own, Tracy swayed on her feet.

Telepathically, Jazon asked, “Where are you?”

“Are you alright?” Dr. Arellano asked as he steadied her.

“Yes, sir,” she answered. Then, she said, “Jazon, I’m in the lab. That weapon Lord Ajani used is regenerating the bodies of the dead, but they are gone inside.” She didn’t know how else to explain it.

“Stay there. We are on our way.”

“Okay.”

Dr. Arellano said, “He’s a strong telepath.”

“Yes, sir. You had better deal honestly with him, or you’ll answer to me.”

“I thought your family strongly disapproved of such forms of experimentation.”

Tracy watched as the doctor spliced genes with a quick, practiced precision. “Jazon has disproved to me all the theories of hybrids being abominations. To cling to such ideas would be ignorant in the face of such glaring evidence.”

Absently, he asked, “What evidence is that?”

“His character, honor, integrity, and bravery,” Tracy answered.

“You think highly of him.”

“I do, or I wouldn’t have become his wife.” He raised an eyebrow at her and then carefully transferred cells into a petri dish. “Jazon would have been able to change my father’s mind. I’m certain of it.”

“I’m sure Jazon’s father would be pleased to hear it. He was a student of mine once, long ago, before his wife died, and he vanished.”

“Stand down,” Jazon ordered as he, Agata, Vasco, and two mercenaries entered the lab with Lord Ajani.

“It’s okay, Jazon. These men work for me, now. I hired them. Isn’t that, right?” she asked as she turned to one of them.

He said, “Yes, Lady Tracy. How could I turn down a hundred credits?”

The other mercenaries within hearing distance chuckled. One of the mercenaries with Jazon said, “You drove a hard bargain for our services while we were away. Is our team sharing those credits?”

“She offered us a hundred credits each. We’ll cut you in. You know we’re suckers for a damsel in distress, especially one who can lower a shield and release us from a trap.”

An angry Newlin Ajani demanded, “What is the meaning of this?”

All of the men with Jazon sobered when they observed their formerly fallen team members. While Dr. Arellano explained their failed attempt to weaponize the serum, Tracy rushed to Jazon and threw her arms around his chest.

“What was your original team count?” Agata asked.

“Twenty,” one of the mercenaries answered. The men took a quick attendance of the living and the dead. “There are three of us roaming around out there,” a man said.

“Split up into teams, find them, and bring them back here. They must be treated,” Dr. Arellano said absently as he continued to work.

“Newlin Ajani, I’m placing you under arrest,” Jazon said. “Captain Agata, put out a distress call to the Galaxic Militia with a disease control beacon.”

“Yes, sir.”

A load lightened off of Tracy. Jazon and his men knew what procedures and protocols to follow in the event of a disaster. Jazon stroked her hair and empathically soothed her emotions. She hugged him again before returning to serve as the doctor’s lab assistant.

“He can’t stay cooped up in there any longer. It’s past his bedtime,” Dr. Arellano said of the clone.

“I can solve that problem,” Jazon said as he lifted his blaster.

“Jazon, no!” Tracy said.

“Tracy, I have a mission.” His face had an expression warning Tracy not to argue.

“Sense him with your mind. That’s all I ask.”

“Tracy,” Jazon said in warning.

“How many would have reacted in the same way with you? I’m ashamed of my own initial reaction to you. What if I had allowed my prejudices to prevent me from falling in love with you? Yes, he is the clone of your enemy, but his developing consciousness is his own. The clone is yet another of that criminal’s victims.” Tracy clutched her hands together. Her thoughts about the ethical dilemma of the clone’s existence were too new to her, and she didn’t understand her own feelings well enough to form a convincing argument. Deciding to place her trust in Jazon, she returned her attention to Dr. Arellano.

He observed her with watery eyes. “Thank you,” the old man said.

Jazon, Agata, and Vasco exchanged glances with each other in a silent conference. A loud roar entered the lab through an air vent. Tracy clutched at the chrome edge of a table and froze. Three mercenaries came into the laboratory at a run.

“Something freaky as hell is going on!” one of the men yelled.

“Report,” Agata ordered.

“There were two dead ice bears at the cave entrance. They don’t seem dead any longer!”

“They ate the clones that attacked Tracy,” Vasco said.

“Set up a detainment perimeter. Those bears can’t escape,” Dr. Arellano said.

“It will be two days before the nearest Galaxic Militia ship will be here,” Agata reported.

“Tracy, stay here. You are not to leave this lab.” Jazon ordered with an added compulsion to be obeyed.

Guards were stationed at the door to the confinement area with its grotesque inhabitants, as well as at the lab’s exits. Then, Jazon and the others left to trap the reanimated ice bears. Tracy and Dr. Arellano proceeded to work for hours.

“I think we may have something here,” the doctor said. Tracy watched as he filled a canister with a dispersal spray and added a few drops of antidote. “I’ll need your help with this, my dear.”

Tracy followed behind him with a grimace on her face and bile rising in her throat. The bodies of the dead mercenaries moved about mindlessly in the plasti-glass walled room. They jerked away when they bumped into pieces of lab equipment. Tracy was glad the expensive equipment had been sealed within plasti-glass and was operated robotically. Otherwise, it would have been necessary to destroy it due to contamination.

“Could you depress this panel while I add this to the filtration system?” Dr. Arellano asked.

Tracy held down the lever he had indicated while he added the spray to the air inside of the containment room. Then, he took her by the wrist and took a few steps back. Tracy wanted to stare at either her boots or the stone floor, but curiosity got the better of her. A thick blue mist lightened in color as it dispersed in the air. Eventually, it was absorbed into the bodies of the soulless, mindless former mercenaries. They began to collapse.

“We will need to keep them under observation while creating more of the substance. I’m certain they will want to dose the ice bears,” Dr. Arellano said.

Tracy shuddered at the memory of the terrifying ice bears. “If it hadn’t been for Lieutenant Vasco, those bears would have eaten me.”

“If it hadn’t been for the adverse effects of the serum we purchased from Jarreau, the clones wouldn’t have been down there to chase you about in the first place. We could go on about such things for hours. Now, back to work. We have much to do.”

When Jazon and the others returned to the lab, they had good news. “We captured and chained the bears. They won’t be able to wander off. All other contaminated organic material has been incinerated,” Jazon said. “We’ve set up a radial defense shield to stop the possible spread of contamination.”

Dr. Arellano said, “There are others who must receive a similar treatment.” He gave a sad nod of his head to the mercenaries, now finally at rest.

Tracy shook her head. Hours ago, those men had been their enemies and had died in the fighting. Now, the surviving hired mercenaries had joined them. They were banded together for the sake of their continued existences. “Were you close friends?” Tracy asked the soldiers nearest her of their fallen comrades.

“Most of us just met to work security for this place,” a man said. “Don’t get all torn up about it. We all know the dangers inherent in our line of work, and none of us here are saints.”

Captain Agata said, “You each have your orders. We sleep in shifts. Dr. Arellano, put some of your machines to work on the antidote for a few hours. You need to rest.”

“I must complete my work!” he argued.

“Do you want to put that to bed, or not?” Agata asked of the clone.

Dr. Arellano looked over at the clone. “I suppose you are right.”

Aside to Vasco, Jazon said, “Wait until I get her out of here.” Then, he said, “Tracy, come on. You’ve been working for ten hours straight.” Jazon led Tracy, Dr. Arellano, the clone, and four of the mercenaries up to the floor of the fortress with the rug that ran the length of it. The mercenaries scanned all of the rooms before entering any of them. Jazon locked their door, put up a defensive shield, and began filling the tub. “Get in,” he said.

Tracy undressed while Jazon built a new fire. After their shared bath, they had a dinner of ration bars and bottled water. Then, they slept in their nest of blankets in front of the fire.

Chapter Ten

When Tracy woke up, Jazon was gone and Lieutenant Vasco slept curled up in a blanket nearby. Into her thoughts, Jazon said, “Go back to sleep. I am on duty.” Too tired to need permission, Tracy laid her head down and closed her eyes. When next she awoke, it was to a commotion in the hall. Vasco was at the door before she had managed to sit up. Quickly, Tracy dressed. Vasco had opened the door, and warmth from the fire escaped as the sounds of voices entered.

“The blizzard has gotten worse. The generators are shutting down, the ones in the basement. The ones in the laboratory continue to operate,” someone said.

“Tracy, stay here,” Vasco said as he left.

She reactivated the shielding as soon as the door closed. The blaster she had loaned to the big mercenary had been returned and was back on the table near the door. It comforted her to see it. The sounds out in the hall had quieted. Tracy went behind the screen to the waste unit and had just finished peeing when she heard a sound. Holding her breath to listen, she heard the noise again. It was coming from the fireplace. Tracy pressed the button on the waste unit, pulled up her pants, and crept closer to the fireplace.

“It must be a pinecone burning or something,” Tracy mumbled to herself. Then, she screamed.

Captain Agata kept Dr. Arellano and Newlin under observation as they produced more of the antidote. Jazon gave him a nod as he entered the lab. The mercenaries and clones who had died had been incinerated and their deaths properly recorded. He had requested that the necessary but gruesome task be postponed long enough for him to get Tracy out of the lab. Now, he sensed the Arellano and Newlin planned to escape.

“Should we allow them to work together?” Jazon asked Agata.

“I am certain that between our efforts and those of the Galaxic Militia that they won’t get far even if they manage to obtain temporary freedom.”

Making no effort to hide his telepathic scans of their thoughts, Jazon watched for a while as the two men worked. Newlin concentrated on escape. However, Arellano’s fears were of the contagion spreading and for the remaining clone’s life. Jazon looked over at the clone. Of course, he looked exactly like the former ambassador. However, the clone wore long tan play-pants, a red sweater, exercise shoes, and sat playing on the floor with a color shape. Babysitting duty had gone to a mercenary who had been injured by a swipe from one of the reanimated ice bears.

“He’s an innocent child in all of this. He didn’t ask to exist,” Dr. Arellano said.

Jazon looked over at him. “In a way, he did. He is Felix Jiri, down to the smallest molecule. Isn’t he?”

“Please, try to understand for his sake. Yes, he shares the same physical traits. However, without the memory transfer, he will grow and develop mentally as an individual. His own experiences and observations will mold him into the person he is to become if you give him the chance,” Dr. Arellano pleaded.

“It isn’t up to me. I’m following orders. However, for your complete cooperation, I will contact my superiors and ask permission to let you keep it. Perhaps, they will grant you a hearing,” Jazon said.

“Yes, yes, I will agree to those terms.” He swiveled back around to his work. “Tracy might be right about you. She believes you are honorable.”

Jazon stilled at the compliment.

“Stanley would be proud of the man you have become, married and an Imperial Guard. You should visit him,” Dr. Arellano suggested.

“You know Dr. Crispus?” Jazon asked.

“Yes, I thought I knew him quite well several years ago, but that was before everything changed.” The doctor tapped his head. “The need for a family is instinctual among Laconians. Your father and I both understand that intimately. However, there are some who come from large families who take it for granted. He lifted his chin back toward the clone. “For example, Lord Jiri cares more for power and wealth than for what truly matters. Family is what is important. That need is what drove me to my own research. I couldn’t sire a child. My clones are my children.”

Angrily, Jazon said, “They aren’t your children any more than my brothers and I are Dr. Crispus’ children.”

“Oh, is that so? Did he nurture and care for you? Did he teach you to care for yourself? Did he see to your education?”

“Yes, before he began killing us with his experiments,” Jazon said coldly.

Dr. Arellano met and held Jazon’s eyes with his own. “May you never understand the depth of pain it took to break your father’s mind.”

Even though his words were sincere, they chilled Jazon as he felt her fear. “Tracy,” he said before he ran from the lab.

From within the fireplace, beady eyes peered back at Tracy. She backed up and then ran for the blaster. Her hand closed upon the weapon just as she heard squeaking sounds. Tracy jumped up onto the table, fastened the holster around her hips, and leaned over trying to reach the defensive shield on the door. The table wobbled under her. The movement of the table had made her feet feel sweaty and had put a frightened ache into her knees. She settled and tried to balance.

The rat had crawled out of the fireplace and had been followed by another. The second one lifted upon its haunches and scented at the air. She could see its nose as it made its whiskers move. Then, it seemed to focus on her location, and it scurried toward her. Tracy set the blaster to the lowest level and fired before it could get farther than the center of the room. Stunned, the rat laid still. Two more rats came down from the chimney, heedless of the fire. The flames caught on the fur of one of the rats. Unconcerned with the flames that had begun to burn it alive, the rat, along with the others, attacked the stunned rat and began eating it alive.

Horrified at its screams, Tracy stunned them all and fumbled with the shielding. As she opened the door, Jazon was jogging toward her from down the hall. “Tracy, what’s wrong?” Tracy glanced into his solid black eyes and then grabbed ahold of his shirt and began climbing up his back. “Shit,” he said as he saw in her mind what had happened. Through a com-link on his wrist, he said, “Vasco, get to our room and bring a crate and some gloves.” Jazon stunned the rats again when they started moving.

After Vasco arrived and boxed up the rats, the three of them returned to the lab. The stun from the blasts had worn off, and they began to hurl themselves against the inside of the crate. The scaping of their claws and agitated sounds they made transitioned into that of fighting. It made Tracy’s hair stand on end.

“Oh, dear. It seems these rats ingested the infected bears, the ones who ate the contaminated clones.” Dr. Arellano had performed autopsies on the rats and recorded all of his data before sending them to the incinerator.

Everyone had been ordered to report to the lab. It had been sealed, and the antidote had been released into the ventilation system.

“Tracy, darling,” Jazon began.

“No,” she said before he could finish. She relaxed her hold a bit. She remained on his back, terrified to let her feet touch the floor. She didn’t let go to sit on top of a table until her arms started to shake.

Hours later, Jazon had never been happier to see the Galaxic Militia. A team of them entered wearing protective suits. All of them had to spend a few days in a decontamination tent. Luckily, Jazon got to share one with Tracy. The tents had been set up on the property. The snow had stopped, but the wind made it seem even colder. The tents were insulated, but each time he and Tracy had to give blood samples, cold air rushed inside and forced Jazon to warm his wife up all over again.

He grinned at her. “There is nowhere for you to escape.” Jazon grabbed her bare ankle and made his way up her naked body before covering them both with a thick fur. Her giggles were carried away on the wind.

While Jazon and the others were under quarantine on the frozen planet of Leucon, a heated argument took place between the Parvac Empire and the Laconian Consuls. The result was that both Dr. Arellano and Lord Newlin Ajani would be tried and punished for their crimes by the Laconian government. Biologically, the clone was a Parvac and was awarded to the Empire’s custody.

Jazon and Tracy watched at the land port as the scientists were led away in restraints to a Galaxic Militia starship. The laboratory assistants who had fled the fortress as soon as Jazon and his team had arrived had been arrested while trying to leave the system. Dr. Arellano looked back at Jazon, pleading to him with his eyes. Jazon gave him a nod. He would keep his part of their agreement. Jazon and the inquisitors were furious that the Militia was absconding with the two Laconians.

“We aren’t done, yet. We still need to pay Tracy’s stepfather a visit. It would be rude of me not to pay my respects to my new stepfather-in-law. We need to learn with whom he partnered. I still suspect Lord Radford, but we have no proof of his involvement.”

“What about the men who tried to take me on Epopeus?”

The thought of seeing Duran Jarreau upset Tracy. Jazon looked at her. Since each of the ice bears had been incinerated as a precaution, he had purchased an expensive ice bear coat and matching boots for her. Her black hair blew in the cold breeze in contrast to the white fur framing her face, and her solid black eyes looked almost human from all of the pleasure he had been rolling through her. The visible sclera surrounding her eyes filled him with pride. Any male who saw those eyes of hers would know that he took good care of his wife.

Jazon offered Tracy his arm. “Shall we leave Leucon?”

“Stars, yes!”

Jazon helped Tracy into the Galaxic transport taking them to their ship. Once they were all onboard their merchant vessel, Jazon left Tracy in charge of the clone and joined Agata and Vasco on the bridge. The inquisitors were just as furious as he was at the political maneuvering that had occurred. What kept them from hunting Arellano and Ajani down and retaking them by force from the Militia was that Jazon had already taken from the cloning specialists’ minds everything that he and his team wanted to know. With his bonding to Tracy, Jazon had become an even stronger telepath.

“We will need to be quick if we are to find Jarreau and Radford before the Militia,” Agata said.

“Recommendations?” Jazon asked.

“Trambelus Space Station lies at the center of the Laconian Sector. We can hunt our prey on the way there and then be poised to strike in any direction,” Agata suggested.

Jazon nodded his agreement.

“What are we going to do with the clone?” Vasco asked.

Jazon grimaced. “The fuck if I know. All I do know is that Tracy won’t forgive any of us if we dispose of it.”

Agata said, “The Emperor can decide.”

“I don’t want to think how seeing Felix’s clone will affect Teagan or Empress Neema. I’ll confer with Inquisitor Beck at once.” Jazon went to a console and contacted their superior officer.

Eli listened to Jazon with a steely expression. “The clone may prove advantageous.”

“How? Currently, he has reached the stage of a ten-year-old.”

Eli nodded. “Should Jiri make any misguided attempts at influencing events within the Talpa Sector or elsewhere, the clone could be used to undermine his orders. Keep it alive for now.”

“Yes, sir.”

“Oh, and Jazon, congratulations. Your Laconian bride is lovely.”

Jazon grinned at him. “She’s smart, too. Ponidi out.”

Tracy put the clone on the couch and tuned the vid-screen to a children’s program that her little brothers enjoyed. She smirked when it had the desired effect and held him enthralled.

“Oh, no!”

Tracy rushed to the medical bay and fed mussels to the sea stars in their tank. She was relived they had been hardy enough to survive a few days without food. She was also relieved to be on a nice modern starship and far from the creepy old fortress on Leucon. Tracy sent her thoughts to Jazon. “Let’s not go back to that planet ever again.”

Into her mind, he said, “I can’t make any promises, darling. I’m sorry.”

Tracy sent her husband a mental grumble of annoyance. All Jazon did was send a wave of love to her through the empathic bond he had created between them. It was still a very odd but welcome sensation to her. Tracy returned to the small living area.

“Are you hungry?” she asked the clone.

He nodded.

“Okay. Turn off the vid-screen and come sit at the table.”

The clone minded her which for a boy was almost as strange as speaking to him from within the body of a grown male. Tracy heated a meal from the cold storage unit and placed it, along with utensils and a glass of water, in front of him. Then, she got something for herself.

“I can’t keep calling you clone. You need a name. Would you like that?”

He smiled at her, and in that moment Tracy truly comprehended the innocence within the being across the table from her. However he had come into being, he was a person with thoughts and emotions of his own. He wasn’t a thing. He didn’t deserve to be treated with disgust and apathy any more than Jazon had deserved it. He was an innocent, helpless being in desperate need of care, compassion, and understanding.

Tracy smiled at him. “You seem like an Andy to me. Do you like the name Andy?” He nodded. “Can you say yes, Andy?”

Andy only smiled and continued to feed himself.

A determination to advocate for Andy infused her. After they had finished eating their meal, Tracy began teaching Andy basic words. Then, she created a schedule for him. They spent an hour learning, an hour playing, had a snack, and then had naptime. Tracy tucked Andy in on the couch, dimmed the lighting, and sat in a chair nearby to study learning programs for children. After careful consideration, she selected a program for Andy.

“We will start this tomorrow,” Tracy said to herself.

Andy’s clothing was in a crate. She didn’t know what to do with it or where she would make a room for him. She felt Jazon directing her thoughts to the confinement cell.

“Absolutely not! You can’t lock a child away all alone.”

However, by the time they docked on Trambelus, Tracy saw the wisdom in his suggestion and had a list. She gave it to Jazon.

“What’s this?” he asked.

“Those are items I want you to go purchase.”

“Tracy,” Jazon almost whined.

“Either you go and buy them, or you babysit Andy so that I can go shopping.”

Jazon sighed in defeat. Aside from not wanting his little female wandering around on the space station, he couldn’t say no to her. “As you wish, darling,” Jazon said.

Agata and Vasco were grinning at him. “I’ll join you,” Vasco offered.

“When Jazon gets back, we will make you your very own room! Won’t that be fun?”

“Yes, Tracy,” Andy said with a genuine smile.

Agata watched them. To see the form of Felix but with the mind and spirit of a child was an incongruity with which he struggled. Ambassador Jiri had been one of the most powerful and feared men of the Parvac Empire. Now, a child occupied a duplicate of his body, and the real Felix was presumed to be in the Talpa Sector or on his way there. Agata sipped his coffee and continued his observations. Then, he sent a coded communication to Eli Beck.

“Report,” Eli ordered.

“Might I make a proposal?”

“I’m listening.”

Agata said, “Reconstructive surgery.”

Eli processed his words. “Understood.”

“Agata out.”

Eli could propose his suggestion if he wished. With a few minor adjustments, Andy could look like one of Felix’s cousins. However, it wasn’t Agata’s job to decide the clone’s fate.

“That was kind of you,” Tracy said.

Agata met her eyes. “This situation isn’t as simple as I had originally perceived it to be. However, before Andy’s fate can be decided, we have other matters with which to contend. Tracy, as you are aware, we search for Jarreau and his accomplice, who we suspect to be Radford. With your assistance, our search could be expedited.”

“How?” she asked quietly. “They killed him for what turned out to be useless data. They took him from my brothers, mother, and me.” Tracy’s eyes spilled over as anguish rushed through her. “They took him away and corrupted his research.”

Concern crossed over Andy’s face. He patted Tracy’s back as she often did to him when he was frustrated. She smiled at him. Then, she turned her smile and eyes full of unshed tears to Agata.

“You didn’t know him. You never got to meet him. He was such a good man.” Love for her father and grief for his loss warred for control of her expression.

“Your father’s goodness is there for all of us to see through you and the example you have set with Andy.” Tracy ducked her chin at the compliment. “Tracy, you can help us to find them.”

“How? It seems so hopeless. By now, they could be anywhere.”

Agata slid his view screen across to her. “Call your mother,” he quietly suggested.

“My mother?” Tracy asked incredulously. “She’s not the same. Duran controls her now. She’s his puppet.”

“Regardless of that, you remain a powerful string. She will answer your call. The longer you keep the communications link open between you, the more successful I will be at pinpointing their planetary location.”

“Father would want her to know what they did to him and to our family.” The smile had vanished from her small pale face, and she wiped at her eyes with her fingers.

“You must not tell her that. It would place her in danger. Instead, tell her you are in trouble and that you need her. Act frightened. Tell her men tried to rescue you on Epopeus and failed,” Agata said. “Give me a moment to set up. I’ll com you in a moment.” He paused after he stood. When Tracy gave him a small nod, he took the lift up to the bridge.

Tracy activated an interactive learning program for Andy to keep him occupied. When Agata signaled, she was ready. It surprised her when her mother actually accepted her call. A large part of her had expected to be rejected.

“Tracy, are you alright?” she asked. Her mother looked relaxed. She was resting on a patio with a drink in her hand. It was in a fancy green glass with a flower on its rim.

“No, I’m not.”

“What’s the matter? Is it Strass, again?” Her mother put down her drink and pulled the edges of her dark-blue, see-through duster around herself, hiding her swim dress.

“Strass?” Tracy asked.

“You’re obviously upset. He is usually the cause.” Her mother’s brow wrinkled as she observed the setting behind her daughter. “Tracy, where are you?”

“Mother, I’m in trouble.”

“Why are you not at home? Tell me where you are this instant!”

“Mother, I haven’t been home in over a week. I think. I’m not sure.”

“That’s ridiculous. Angelica sends me vids of you and the boys each day.” Tracy’s incredulous expression rivetted up her mother’s anxiety.

“I’m on a merchant ship. I was on my way to Epopeus to become a research assistant. They want some formula based on Father’s research. I don’t know what will happen to me if they don’t get it.”

She knew her mother, and the expression on her face said she didn’t believe her. “Are you telling me the truth? Are you doing this because I have remarried?”

“If you don’t believe me, ask Lord Radford. He sent men to rescue me on Epopeus. You didn’t even know I was missing?” Lucky for Tracy, her mother didn’t know that she had called to have her missing person status revoked. She had been prepared to tell her mother that she had been forced to make that call.

Tracy didn’t learn her mother’s answer. Instinctively, she cringed as a hand shot down, took the vid-screen from her, and deactivated it.

“Perfect,” Agata said.

“Yes, Jarreau won’t get anything from his wife’s mind that he doesn’t already know,” Jazon said from where he and Vasco entered from the lift. “Yanking the vid-screen away as though she had been caught was a nice touch.” Each of the men carried several large bags.

“Thank you. Jarreau had learned of his wife’s communication and was attempting to trace it,” Agata explained.

  “Do you know where they are?” Vasco asked.

“Yes, they remain out in the open on Sinope. Furthermore, I will receive notice each time Lady Jarreau sends or receives a communication. Are we clear to depart?” Agata asked.

“Affirmative,” Jazon answered.

Agata bowed deeply to Tracy. Then, he and Vasco went to the bridge.

“Come on, Andy,” Jazon said.

“May I?” Andy asked Tracy.

“Yes, you may. Let’s see what Jazon and Vasco got you for your room.” Tracy smiled at him and tried to appear happy. Apparently, Duran was keeping everything from her mother.

“He’ll pay,” Jazon stated.

They followed Jazon to the confinement cell where the shielding had been deactivated. From one compressed bag, Jazon pulled out a long pad and waited for it to refill with air. Then, he attached it to the bunk.

Tracy had started emptying another bag. “Look, Andy! You have coloring books, crayons, snap together blocks, and a keyboard! These toys will be so much fun. We can put all of your toys in that crate after we put your clothes away.” Tracy found the collapsible cloth shelving she had requested and secured it to the wall. “What should we put on the top shelf?” she asked Andy.

He thought for a moment. “Shirts.”

Together, they put his clothing away while Jazon made up the bunk with colorful sheets, blankets, and some pillows. Then, he did something unexpected and handed Andy a big stuffed ice bear. Andy hugged the bear to his chest and gave Jazon a huge smile. Jazon smiled back at him.

At dinner, Captain Agata and Lieutenant Vasco decided to bring up a topic which they feared would be met with a great deal of hostility. Thus far, the quiet meal had been interrupted only by the sound of their dinnerware. They all seemed to take enjoyment from the peaceful respite. Eventually, Agata and Vasco began to stare pointedly Jazon. He concentrated on his food and tried to ignore them.

However, Tracy noticed and asked, “What’s wrong?”

Trying ineffectually to mask his annoyance with the two inquisitors, he said, “It’s nothing.” If Vasco and Agata’s suggestion didn’t go as he expected and got him into trouble with Tracy, he’d take it out on both of them mercilessly in the ring.

Vasco said, “Lady Tracy, Parvac is a warrior based society. It is expected that every Parvac male know how to defend himself and those under his protection. Typically, boys begin defensive instruction at three years of age. Regardless of from where Andy came, he is a Parvac, and he is several years behind in his training.”

Tracy’s eyes had gone wide, and she clutched her napkin to her chest. “Fighting? You want to teach our sweet boy to fight?”

Jazon kept his expression blank.

“Being what he is and who he resembles, it is imperative that he learn to defend himself. Andy is sweet, and he has none of the character traits from the one from whom he was derived. It is for those very reasons that we are concerned. If we do not begin his training, we do Andy a grave injustice. As it is, you have been influencing him to be far too effeminate. You are teaching him to color and play with dolls,” Agata said in as polite and controlled manner as he could manage. As a Parvac male, it embarrassed and concerned him. Every male served in the military and was expected to fight in the Empire’s defense if called upon.

Vasco said, “He needs to be able to defend himself if he is to be one of us. The fact that he was cloned and isn’t the real Felix may not matter to some people. It is our duty to teach him to defend himself. Surely, you realize that if we do not teach him, it would be neglectful of us?”

“Train me for what?” Andy asked.

Tracy said, “It is important to know how to defend yourself. Here on the ship, we are all friends. However, we aren’t always around friends. Sometimes, there are dangerous situations that we are unable to avoid. My brothers and I all attended defensive training classes. Vasco and Agata want to teach you to protect yourself.”

Jazon chuckled at the looks on Vasco and Agata’s faces.

“You told us it would upset her,” Vasco said.

Jazon looked over at him mischievously. “Yeah, I did. I was bored,” he said with a shrug.

Andy had an excited and expectant look. He asked, “Training as in fighting? Do you mean like in The Wrath of the Snow King?”

Tracy was horrified. “Andy, what were you doing watching that movie? I didn’t give you permission to watch that!” When Tracy had first seen the movie, it had given her nightmares.

“You didn’t say I couldn’t,” Andy said with a small shrug.

Agata and Vasco had never heard of the Laconian movie. The men decided to watch it with Andy. Having no interest in seeing the gory battle scenes again, Tracy sat in the kitchen at the table and read.

“I don’t understand something,” Andy said.

“What is it?” Jazon asked.

“Well, you and Tracy are Laconian, and Agata and Vasco are Parvacs, right?”

“Correct, but Tracy and I are Parvac citizens just as they are.”

That piece of overheard information made Tracy’s spine lengthen nervously. She hadn’t given it much thought. The idea of residing with Jazon in the Parvac Empire as one of its citizens was rather terrifying.

Andy said, “Well, in all of the movies, Parvacs are bad. The Laconians always defeat them.”

“Yes, but movies are just pretended,” Jazon said.

“Are Parvacs bad?”

Agata spoke up. “The movies are a cultural reaction to the ongoing wars that lasted for generations amongst our peoples. Movies such as The Wrath of the Snow King were a way for viewers to have a psychological outlet for their feelings of fear and hopelessness. They provide entertainment but also are a form of propaganda against the Empire. Our past wars and incursions created animosity between our races.”

“So, do I get to learn to fight like the Snow King? Do I get a blaster?” Andy asked with boyish excitement.

After that evening, the men decided it was time for them to take over Andy’s education. Without Andy consuming her spare time, Tracy had more time to worry.

She paced nervously back and forth across the decking. “How are we going to get Mother away from Duran? What if she doesn’t believe us? Yes, we know what Duran did, but what actual evidence do we have? If she is to be convinced, I must present her with irrefutable evidence. You know the psychological hold an Eriopis male has on a wife. Duran will know every thought she has.” She was too nervous about her mother to even notice the two moons of Sinope through the viewport.

“One thing at a time, Tracy. First, we go in for a visit. Agata and Vasco will cover the property in order to prevent Duran from getting away,” Jazon said.

Tracy shook her head and rubbed her hands up and down her arms. “I have a feeling that something is terribly wrong.”

Chapter Eleven

“Melinda, get into the walk-in safe and stay there!” He grabbed her gently by her arms. “Do you hear me?” Duran Jarreau asked his wife. Telepathically, he had sensed something, and it had unnerved him. Whatever it might be, he didn’t want his wife to become involved. The less she knew about his business dealings, the better it would be.

“But, darling, why? Whatever is the matter?”

For the past hour, Duran had been agitated, fearful almost. Melinda knew something troubled Duran but didn’t know what it might be. What could be so upsetting to him on Sinope? It was their honeymoon. For the past few weeks, she had been able to put aside the grievous pain that had torn her apart. After losing Nathan, she had feared she wouldn’t have the strength to survive, even for her children. Then, Duran, a wealthy entrepreneur, had pulled her from the despair into which she had sunk. He had convinced her that the constant reminders in her home of Nathan would make healing from his loss even more difficult. Melinda had quickly become dependent upon Duran. He had become her husband and a father to her children. Tracy hadn’t accepted his new role as the patriarch of their family. She continued to grieve for Nathan. As lost as Melinda had been to her own grief, she knew her children had suffered just as deeply. Now, her daughter was in trouble of some sort. Why couldn’t she have simply stayed at home with her brothers and Angelica?

“Is this about Tracy?” she asked.

“Get inside, Melinda. I’ll come for you when it’s safe.” Duran added a compulsion so she would obey his command.

Melinda’s eyes widened, and she clutched at Duran’s sleeve. A loud sound from below echoed up to them. “What was that?”

Duran shoved her inside of the walk-in safe and closed the door. He had insisted on only staying in a vacation rental with a safe that would also serve as a safe room in case of emergencies. He had a paranoid fear of thieves. Melinda activated a small security feed and placed a call to the Enforcers.

“There is an intruder in our house! Come quickly! My husband has gone down to deal with him.”

An enforcer said, “Stay hidden. Help is on the way.”

Duran took the stairs down to the first floor. He had his finger poised above his blaster’s firing button. All he needed was one clear shot and the intruder would be dead. He had made a few enemies. Lord Ajani wasn’t pleased with their business deal, but there was also the male who had taken Tracy as his wife. Eliminating either of those possible threats shouldn’t be a problem. He hadn’t made it to where he was today by being weak. Those who opposed him didn’t live to regret it. Dr. Heintz had made the fatal mistake of saying no to him. A few drops of poison were all it had taken to silence his protests. Melinda was pretty and kept him entertained, but he had learned that Tracy held the key to perfecting his serum.

A heavy blow to the back of his head brought him crashing down to the floor. Duran’s vision darkened before pain brought him back to his senses. Someone kicked his blaster from his hand before dragging him by his hair across the floor to the center of the living room. The man kicked furniture out of his way, unconcerned by the noise it made. All Duran could see of him was his solid black clothing. Duran pushed at the other male’s mind, but his opponent had a neural blocker. He tried to free himself and received another sharp blow to his head. Then, the man flipped him to his back and punched him in his throat. He grabbed Duran’s wrist, flattened it to the floor, and then stabbed through his palm with a blade effectively pinning him to the floor. Duran couldn’t scream because he couldn’t breathe.  He looked up into dead brown eyes.

“You have stolen much from my employer, Duran Jarreau. Your greed and stupidity have been costly. First, you will transfer the credits you owe him into this account.” The man pulled a vid-screen out from one of his pockets and pressed Duran’s unimpaled hand to its surface. “Don’t worry. I’m not taking all of it, just enough to cover the expense of four ruined clones.” The man put the vid-screen back into his pocket. “No, it isn’t your credits that should worry you. It is what happens to those who take from my employer what is rightfully his.”

The man withdrew another blade and began slicing off each of Duran’s fingers. After Duran could pull in a breath, he used it to scream.

“Now, you will tell me the name of your partner.” He held the knife poised above Duran’s left eye.

“Jazon, hurry! Something is very wrong. I can feel it. Mother is terrified!”

They had brought Andy with them. He had progressed into the mental stage of a curious and indestructible teenager. Leaving him on the ship alone would have been too much of a temptation for the boy, especially one with his intelligence. Andy had begged to fire the ship’s blaster cannons more than once.

Through communications, Agata reported, “We are in position, but we aren’t the only ones. Enforcers are swarming the location.”

Jazon parked the transport behind one of many emergency transports. Tracy got out and ran. Her mind led her straight to her mother.

“Miss, you can’t go in there!” an Enforcer said.

Ignoring his warning, Tracy darted around him and other uniformed officers and ran up the stairs. Tracy had never sensed such stark, shocked disbelief from anyone. It was almost as if her mother’s mind had been frightened away.

“Mother! Mother!” Tracy searched the room. She knew her mother was here. Then, she found the safe. “Mother, come out!” Tracy heard the heavy door mechanisms as they released.

“Tracy?” Her mother grabbed her and held her with a needy ferocity. “Oh, Tracy,” she sobbed.

Tracy felt the telepathic bond’s resurgence between them. “Mother, what happened?”

Her mother had begun to shake uncontrollably. A couple of enforcers and a medic had followed her upstairs. Tracy glanced inside of the safe room and saw the live security feed. “What is that?” she asked.

Downstairs, the enforcers were documenting a gruesome bloody mess. It reminded her of what had been left of the clones after the ice bears had attacked. Whatever it had been, her mother had seen it all.

“I am Jazon Ponidi, an Imperial Guard in service to Princess Probus of Parvac, and these men are with me. We have clearance to be here.”

Several words were spoken by a male, but all Tracy could make out of it was, “There is nothing for you to see upstairs.”

“My wife and mother-in-law are up there. Try and stop me,” Jazon responded. Jazon was loud enough that both Tracy and her traumatized mother had heard him clearly.

While holding her mother, Tracy said reassuringly, “It’s okay, Mother. Jazon will take care of everything.” Tracy feared her mother might shake apart in her arms.

Melinda saw the man, Jazon, to whom Tracy had referred. He had the body of an elite soldier and the mind of a powerful telepath. His mere presence was enough to assure her that the horrific ordeal had ended. Jazon strode forward, sent Tracy’s mother to sleep with a strong psychic push, and picked her up. All but one of the Eriopis enforcers followed them back down the stairs and outside to a medical transport.

“Tracy, go with your mother to the hospital and stay there with her. We must apprehend this criminal,” Jazon ordered.

“I’m going with you,” Andy said.

Jazon held Andy’s gaze for a few heartbeats before saying, “No. Go with Tracy and her mother. Keep them safe.”

Tracy began to realize what it was her mother had witnessed, and a sick feeling spread throughout her chest. Fear for their safety prompted her to say, “Jazon, be careful. I love you.” She knew they wouldn’t be dissuaded from pursuit of the murderer.

“I love you,” Jazon said as he kissed her. He nodded to the medics and watched as the transport drove away.

Then, he joined up with Agata and Vasco to search for the assassin.

Many hours passed before Melinda awoke. Through a large open window in her hospital room, the sight of a calm lake greeted her. A gentle breeze blew from off of the lake and into the room. A head of black hair rested on the blankets near her knee. Melinda stroked her sleeping daughter’s hair. The control Duran had wielded over her mind was gone. Clarity had replaced the muddled mental haze in which he had kept her a prisoner in her own mind.

Sensing that she was awake, an Enforcer entered and interviewed her. He only sought clarification. The home’s security monitors had recorded Duran’s murder. Throughout the questioning, Melinda could sense the Enforcer keeping her calm and centered. Tracy slept through the interview, and Melinda had gone back to sleep once it had been concluded.

When Melinda next woke, her hand returned to her daughter’s hair. Tracy felt fingers gently stroking her hair and sat up. “Mother,” she began.

Seeing the fear in her daughter’s eyes, she said, “It’s alright. I’ve come back to myself again. I’m free of Duran’s control. I want you to tell me everything that you know.”

“I will give the two of you some privacy. I will wait in the hall,” Andy said.

No sooner had Andy stepped into the hall before a nervous Laconian male caught his attention. When the male made eye contact with Andy, he panicked and fled down the hall. Andy followed. He quickly caught up with the man at the hospital’s back exit. Before Andy could ask a question, the man started to babble. “I just came to check on the Heintz females. Please, Lord Jiri, don’t kill me! It was all Duran’s idea. I swear it! I warned him that the serum needed more work, but he wouldn’t listen. I….” The man’s eyes changed, and he fell heavily in Andy’s grip. The man began foaming at the mouth. Andy half carried and half dragged the man back inside of the hospital.

“Help! Something is wrong with this man!” Andy called out.

A nurse ran over to them and began to scan her patient. “Poison,” she said. Andy watched in shock as she took a blood sample and injected it into a drone for testing.

A doctor arrived and made futile attempts at resuscitating the victim. Andy backed away. He had swiped the man’s identification badge and kept it hidden in his pocket. He went in search of a vid-screen so he could report to Captain Agata.

The mother and daughter had a long and very serious discussion.

“You suspect that Lord Radford is involved?” Melinda asked.

“He is wealthy and has ties to the academy.”

Melinda rubbed at her temples.

“Are you alright?” Tracy asked. She gazed at her mother with worry clear on her features. To lose two telepathic bonds one after the other would be devastating enough, but also to have witnessed her husband’s murder would be horrific.

“I need to go home to Aurilius and the boys. I need to determine how best to explain this to them,” she said in a shaky voice.

“Everything will be okay. Jazon will come for us and take us home. Please, don’t cry.” Tracy tried to comfort her mother. She turned her head and watched as a doctor entered the room with a hover chair.

He gave Tracy a sympathetic nod and then gave her mother a shot. Melinda went limp.

“Mother?”

Suddenly, the doctor had his hand over Tracy’s mouth. He pressed an injector to her throat. “Make a sound, and she dies. The antidote to the poison is on my ship. Without it, she has a few hours to live. This should keep you compliant.” He jabbed another injector into Tracy’s throat.

She felt her telepathic abilities seeping away from her as she drifted off into a foggy semi-conscious state. As if from a distance, she watched as the man picked up her mother and placed her into the hover chair. He tucked a blanket around her. “You will walk at my side,” he ordered.

Unable to form a thought of her own, Tracy did as she was ordered.

Jazon and his men had tracked the assassin back to the land port. However, no ships had departed from Sinope since the time of Duran’s murder.

“I can better track him on the ship,” Agata said.

“I’ll go get the women and Andy at the hospital,” Jazon said.

Jazon sped to the hospital. Clearly, Felix Jiri had hired the assassin to exact his revenge on Duran Jarreau. That the assassin had executed Duran with the practiced skill of an experienced inquisitor hadn’t been lost on any of them. He had to capture Felix’s hired assassin and bring him into custody for questioning. He wondered if the man was in fact a former or current Parvac operative. Once he captured the assassin, they would have a trail to follow back to Felix. The bastard had eluded capture for long enough. Jazon parked in front of the hospital.

Torn from his investigative musings and thrust back into the present, Jazon came to a blood chilling realization. Tracy and her mother were no longer within the hospital. Entering the facility, Jazon strode inside while encouraging the minds around not to notice him. Inside of the security station, he accessed the hospital’s visual surveillance. Watching the footage as it took him back in time, he saw a male doctor leaving Tracy’s mother’s room. As though in a trance, Tracy walked at his side while he guided the hover chair that carried an unconscious Melinda.

Jazon slowly backed up the footage until the time at which the male had first arrived at the room and then played it forward. The male was an expert at avoiding detection by the facial recognition bots. However, Jazon did manage to get a lock on the transport he had used to take Tracy and Melinda from the hospital. Quickly, Jazon transmitted all of the surveillance to Agata. What did the assassin or Felix want with his wife and mother-in-law?

“Jazon, Andy reported a few minutes after you left the ship. Find him,” Agata out.

Chapter Twelve

When Tracy and Melinda regained their cognizance, they were in Duran’s home on Aurilius. Tracy had no recollection of the days of space travel it would have taken to make the return trip to her home planet. The last thing she remembered was being injected with something in her mother’s hospital room on Sinope. Whoever had taken them didn’t want Jazon to know his plans. Tracy sat up from where she had been draped across the couch. Her mother began to stir beside her.

“How did we get here?” Tracy groggily asked. “What happened?”

Her mother grabbed her arm and pulled her against her and partially behind her. “What do you want? Why have you brought us all of the way home?” Melinda tried to sound sure of herself, but after being a helpless prisoner and held in stasis for days her tone had a hysterical quality to it that she couldn’t disguise.

“You are a lovely female. You and your children have nothing to fear from me, as long as I get the information for which I have come.” He had tortured all of the information he could out of Duran and had learned that Melinda Jarreau didn’t possess the knowledge he had been sent to retrieve. “What I require is on this planet, and your daughter will help me find it. Duran was close to a scientific breakthrough. I have been sent to acquire the serum my employer was promised.”

The assassin got up from the chair across from them and walked toward the couch. Melinda trembled as she looked into his cold brown eyes. He observed her with the same dispassion with which a person might observe a pillow. Telepathically, Melinda did her best to warn her children of danger.

The assassin said, “To deliberately injure a female does trouble me to an extent. However, hacking males to pieces does not.” He pointed across the room. Angelica did her best to keep Tracy’s little brothers behind her.

All of their eyes went to the door when someone signaled for entry.

“Get rid of whoever that is if you want your brothers to live,” he said to Tracy. He strode over to the side of the living room and roughly grabbed Toby, her youngest brother. The man had a knife to Toby’s throat.

Toby cried out at the rough treatment. The boy’s eyes had grown round and solid black in his fear. Tracy watched as her brother futilely looked around the room for father or Duran, neither of whom would ever again offer him any protection. 

“No, my baby! Please!” Melinda cried.

With her heart pounding in fear, Tracy ran to the front door. She opened the door a crack before it was yanked all of the way open.

“I thought I saw the arrival of a shuttle. We need to have a talk. At least you came to your senses and came home,” Strass said in a haughty and arrogant tone.

For a moment, Tracy stood there with her mouth as open as the door. “Strass, now isn’t a good time. Go home. I’ll call you later.”

Strass’ eyes turned blacker. He wasn’t a strong telepath, but he was strong enough to know that something was very wrong within the Jarreau home. He projected his awareness and sensed the fear in the house.

“Go, Strass,” Tracy pleaded.

“I’ll go for now, but this isn’t over.” Strass made a show of storming off. At his transport, he called his father before sneaking into the backyard.

The assassin removed the blade from Toby’s throat and shoved him away. “Where is Dr. Heintz’s regeneration research?” he demanded.

Tracy knew she had to get the man out of her house and away from her family. “It isn’t here. Duran didn’t want us to learn what he was doing.”

“Quit stalling, and tell me where it is.” He grabbed at Toby again, but the boy darted away and close to their brother Tam.

“Leave him alone! I’m the only one who knows where it is or how to interpret it.” She realized that the man in front of her was a Parvac and assumed his employer was the man most wanted by the Parvac Empire, the original upon whom the clones had been created.

“I don’t have time for this,” he said as he lunged for Tracy.

At that moment, the pool door flew open, and Strass entered with his sonic blaster aimed at the intruder. The assassin drew his own blaster and fired at Strass. The shot went wild hitting the ceiling. Angelica had kicked the assassin’s arm, but he retained his hold on his weapon.

“Go to your mother! Now!” Angelica ordered in a voice none of them recognized.

Toby and Tam ran to Melinda.

Strass had his blaster aimed at the intruder, but didn’t have a clear shot. “Take the boys and go to the front yard! I called Father before I came inside,” Strass said.

The man had grabbed a handful of Tracy’s hair. She was bent over and trying to get away from him.

“Strass, my daughter,” Melinda pleaded.

“Go,” Strass ordered as he put himself between Melinda, the boys, and the intruder.

Alerted that the authorities would soon be there, the man jerked Tracy by her hair to the pool door.

“Drop,” Tracy heard clearly in her mind.

Tracy let herself collapse to the floor. Her hair was yanked hard as the man was forced to let go of it. Angelica delivered two quick roundhouse kicks to the man’s head. He caught her ankle after the second impact, dragged her upside down, and flung her across the room. Strass took the opportunity to fire at the man with his sonic blaster. However, his shot didn’t cause any actual damage. It didn’t even make the assassin pause. The assassin aimed his blaster at Strass. Having sensed his intentions, Strass dove behind the couch. Tracy heard his grunt of pain. The man grabbed Tracy and hauled her to her feet. She struggled and clawed at his hands with her fingernails, but he ignored her attempts to cause him pain. He dragged her outside to a shuttle that had landed on and flattened a few of their lounge chairs.

“Get in,” he ordered as he shoved her inside. “Where is the research?” he asked as he aimed the blaster at her.

“It’s in a secret lab in the middle of Fig Forest.” It was a lie, but it was the only thing she could think of to get the dangerous male away from her family.

He took the shuttle up and to the coordinates Tracy had given him. Through the shuttle’s window, she could see Enforcers arriving at their house. A consciousness latched upon her, seemed to hold her still, and then filled her mind. Relieved, Tracy moved aside within her own mind to give Jazon all of the room he needed. Through Tracy’s eyes, Jazon saw the shuttle’s coordinates. He, Agata, and Vasco intended to arrive there first.

“You calmed down rather quickly,” the Parvac assassin observed with calculation.

“My family is no longer in danger. To Laconians, family means everything. You aren’t Laconian. Who are you? For whom are you working?”

He ignored her questions.

Jazon had eased his control of her mind, but continued to make observations through his wife’s eyes. Through the viewport, Tracy saw two fighter ships swooping down from the sky. They appeared to be on a heading for the lab in Fig Forest. Anxiety filled Tracy as the man turned the shuttle and sped to the land port.

“It’s a trap!” Jazon yelled. Blaster fire rocked the underground bunker.

“I have a reading on two fighters. The shuttle has set course for the land port,” Agata reported. Simultaneous blasts had sections of the ceiling crumbling down on top of them.

“Is there another way out?” Vasco asked over the blaring alarms that had begun to sound. Loud grumblings of stone scraping and grinding against each other along with a thin cloud of dust rolled down the stairs.

Jazon said, “The front exit is blocked.”

“There is another way,” Agata said dryly. He led them into the maintenance and power room where he removed an old manhole cover from the stone floor. They dropped down into the tunnel and ran.

Angelica ran from the house and into the backyard. She barely had sufficient time to leap up onto the stone wall and launch herself up close enough to the rising shuttle for her magnetic wrist and ankle cuffs to clamp onto the hull. Unfortunately, she hadn’t had time to grab a breathing mask, but her position on the shuttle’s hull provided her with some protection from the wind. At least she was able to drag in a few quick breaths. If the assassin’s sensor readings alerted him to her presence, one pulse through his shields would be all it would take to send her plummeting to the planet’s surface. Even at the low altitude at which he currently flew, there would be less of her to clean up than there had been of Duran Jarreau. His accomplice, a professor from the academy, had been the luckier of the two, having died a quick death by poison.

Lord Radford had entrusted the surviving members of the Heintz family to her care, and she had no intentions of allowing harm to come to one of her charges at the hands of an alien assassin. Angelica held her breath as the shuttle dropped down to dock at the land port. Disengaging her magnetic cuffs, she dropped from the hull and rolled away to take cover behind the nearest ship. Angelica activated her visual displacement shielding and blocked her thoughts from her opponent. She would strike when he least suspected it.

Chapter Thirteen

The assassin set the shuttle down beside Jazon’s merchant ship. “Open the hatch,” he ordered someone through his communications console.

Tracy watched as a land port crew applied a device to the ship. It appeared they were draining its energy. Tracy’s level of fear increased. The man definitely wasn’t working alone. “Who are you?”

Again, the assassin ignored her inquiry. She willed Jazon to see through her eyes.

In her mind, he said, “They are diverting power from the shields long enough to use a magnetic override on the hatch.”

Devices such as the ones the men used were not legal to obtain. They were used only by government entities in emergency situations. Obviously, the assassin’s employer was not restrained by expense or legalities.

The assassin waited until his men had opened the hatch. Then, he flew the shuttle into the transport bay. Tracy watched as he stood from the pilot’s seat and strode toward her. She cringed and tried to avoid his grasping hands. However, he took her by the hair and dragged her along with him.

“The serum isn’t here!” Tracy said.

“Oh, I know that. Newlin admitted to me that it didn’t work and never would.”

“Then why?” Tracy cried out in pain. Releasing his fistful of her hair, he grabbed a hold of her upper arm instead. He hauled her into the lift and hit the command to take them up to the habitation deck.

“My employer feels as though a piece of himself is missing,” he said as he shoved Tracy from the lift.

“Andy, run!” Tracy screamed.

The man slapped her hard across the face. The sting of it shocked Tracy and made her eyes fill with tears. “You will not interfere. After all, I avenged your father, and no harm came to your family. However, your usefulness to me has come to an end. You would be wise to remember that.”

Through her tears, Tracy could see Andy from where he stood near the medical bay. He had been working out in the gym.

“It is regretful that chance kept us from meeting on Sinope. Had I realized at the time that you were in the hospital, my plans would have been greatly simplified. Come with me. Your creator has much to teach you,” the assassin said to Andy. The man had managed to modify his appearance and now wore the convincing smile of a politician.

“I don’t want to go with you,” Andy said.

The assassin raised an eyebrow at him. “Do you really think you have a choice? You are a clone and have a purpose. Your existence depends on your ability to fulfill the requirements of your creator. What do you think will happen to you in the Parvac Empire? What promises have these people made to you? Do you think they will let you live? You will be executed by reverse nanite technology.”

Tracy watched as doubt and fear washed over Andy’s features. It hurt her worse than the vicious slap, because she couldn’t assure Andy that the man’s words weren’t true.

“It is the slowest and most painful death ever devised. With your creator, you will have wealth, power, and all of the females you desire.”

Andy looked at the blood on Tracy’s lip.

The assassin followed his eyes. “Do you want this one for yourself? If you want her, she is yours.” At his declaration, Tracy backed away. “Is that a look of disgust on your face, Tracy? Does the thought of a clone pumping himself between your legs sicken you so?”

“Andy is like a son to me, so yes, that is gross.”

“He hurt you,” Andy said.

Tracy touched her face. “I’ll be okay,” she said reassuringly. To the assassin, she said, “Please, don’t hurt him.” Tracy looked back at Andy. Helplessness gnawed at her. Through a sob, she said, “Everything will be alright, Andy. We will find you.” Tracy’s eyes swelled with tears. What she had said had been the truth. She did love Andy as she imagined a mother must love her son.

Andy walked toward them. “I would prefer to take my chances in the Empire.”

“Wrong choice,” the assassin replied. He aimed his blaster at Tracy.

Tracy screamed as white-hot pain filled her thigh. She fell to the floor and clutched at her leg. Searing pain more excruciating than anything she had ever before felt consumed her. She tried unsuccessfully to scoot away from the feet threatening to trample her. Her sweet Andy had been transformed by an animalistic rage, and all of it was focused on the man who had blasted her.

The men grappled for the blaster. Shots scorched the ceiling. The assassin broke free from Andy. However, before he could stun Andy with a blast, he was struck from behind. Andy ducked out of the line of fire. Through pain-glazed eyes, Tracy watched as Angelica delivered a series of kicks to the assassin’s head. He dropped down and swept Angelica’s legs out from under her. Then, he drew a lethal blade. Angelica grabbed a kitchen chair and used it to deflect his strikes.

Suddenly, he grabbed the chair and yanked Angelica forward. Then, he shoved the chair up into Angelica’s face and twisted, knocking her back into the kitchen table. With a loud clatter, she fell. As he aimed his blaster at her, Andy rammed into him and knocked him into the wall between Jazon and Agata’s quarters. Fortunately, the assassin had been ordered to cause no harm to Felix’s clone. Unfortunately, Andy was no match for a trained killer.

“I see I will need to restrain you. Someone has been teaching you to fight,” the man said.

“I would be one of those someone’s,” Jazon growled.

Andy rushed to Tracy. He supported her back and dragged her away from the fighting. Her leg left a trail of blood. Andy and Angelica may have been severely outmatched, but the assassin didn’t stand a chance against Jazon. Unable to concentrate on Jazon, Tracy attempted to focus on breathing through the pain in her leg. It was all consuming.

“Everything will be okay, Tracy. You are safe,” Andy whispered to her.

Angelica watched from the kitchen floor as the Laconian hybrid attacked. Fear kept her frozen to the spot. In his rage, he had ripped away the telepathic wall she had hidden her thoughts behind. Her neural blocker had been providing her nothing but a false sense of security. A feral rage battered at her mind and made her hair stand on end. She forced another mental block up between her and the dangerous male. She watched as he shattered the assassin’s blade wielding arm with a single punch. The assassin couldn’t defend himself or attack because the hybrid soldier knew what he planned to do before he could act upon his thoughts. The hybrid soldier’s fists came down again and again. Two Parvac soldiers arrived and pulled him off of the unconscious killer.

“Stand down! We want him alive,” Captain Agata warned.

As soon as Angelica had answered the questions of the Parvac soldiers and Enforcers, she left to report to her employer. The hybrid had unnerved her. The reports she had read about their abilities had not prepared her for witnessing one in the grip of a complete loss of control. Now, Laconian prejudices had resulted in seventeen of the deadly hybrids turning themselves over willingly to the Parvac Empire. The hybrids were one more weapon in Parvac’s already overflowing arsenal.

When Tracy regained consciousness, she saw their family physician watching her from a chair. She was in her room in Duran’s mansion. Monitors made beeping noises around her. Her confusion diminished when she felt the soft kiss placed on her forehead.

“Mother?”

“I’m here.” Her mother had the stoic expression she reserved for trying times.

“Jazon!” Tracy cried out in anguish. The last she remembered, he had been fighting the assassin.

“He’s fine. Here,” Melinda said as she handed Tracy a vid-screen.

Tracy activated it, and a direct line of communication appeared. Jazon was wearing his uniform. “Are you okay?” she asked. “Where are you? Are you leaving me?” Frightened tears spilled from her eyes.

“Lady Ponidi, I will never leave you. I am at the land port. Now that I have seen your face and heard your voice, I am fine. We required a larger ship and better security for our return to Parvac. One has only just arrived. After I have seen to the transfer of our prisoner into his maximum-security confinement cell, I will come for you. Jazon out.”

Relieved, Tracy sighed and laid back against her pillows. Her mother took the vid-screen away and placed it on the nightstand. Then, she turned all of her attention to her daughter. Tracy could see her own pale reflection in her mother’s solid black eyes.

“You married a Laconian hybrid Parvac soldier. Couldn’t you find anyone scarier to marry, like a possessed mountain goat or something?” Melinda asked.

“He isn’t scary. He’s a beautiful man, and I love him.” Tracy sounded petulant even to herself. With her emotions calmed with the realization that Jazon would return for her, she was unable to ignore the dreadful throbbing in her leg. “Oh, my leg hurts.”

Sympathy softened Melinda’s face. “Yes, and that is with a few pain and nanite patches.”

Confused, Tracy asked, “What happened?”

Melinda’s eyes filled with tears. “After that evil man took you…” she began before a sob stopped her words. “I couldn’t protect you. I’m so sorry.”

Double knocks on her open bedroom door distracted them. Toby and Tam were peeking in at them. Tracy noticed that Enforcers were stationed in the hall outside of her room to either side of her door.

“Tracy, can we come in? We made you something to help you feel better,” Tam said. He and Toby presented her with a cane made of fig wood. “We carved it from a dry limb.”

“I sanded it,” Toby said. “We just needed a little help.”

Tracy knew the help had come from a retired gentleman down the street. He was always creating something beautiful from wood. Her brothers handed the cane to her. There was no way they had carved the leafy vine around the cane. “It’s beautiful. Thank you. I’m sure this will help a lot.” Carefully, her brothers hugged her neck. “In fact, I’ll try it out right now.” Tracy looked toward her bathroom.

“Oh, no you don’t,” the doctor said.

“You can’t put any weight on your leg. Wait a moment. I’ll get someone to help you. Strass!” her mother called.

Tracy inwardly cringed. She knew their doctor was too old to lift her, her mother and brothers weren’t strong enough, and she didn’t exactly want Strass’ help, but having an Enforcer who she didn’t know carry her to her bathroom was completely out of the question. She wasn’t sure if she was the one who was still upset with Strass over the last vid-chat they had had, or if it was because Jazon didn’t like him. Regardless of her confused feelings for her former boyfriend, he had bravely tried to protect her family. Angelica had tried, too.

“Mother, I think Lord Radford was working with Duran.”

Melinda shook her head. “No, dear. Lord Radford was suspicious of Duran. He feared Nathan had been murdered, but there was no clinical proof to be found.”

Strass overheard them as he entered. “Tracy, again, you have such foolish thoughts at times. Father hired Angelica to investigate Lord Jarreau. Her credentials as a nanny were prefabricated to gain her admittance into the household. Her real assignment was to find evidence against Lord Jarreau implicating him in your father’s murder. When you left Aurilius, father sent men to bring you home, but then he decided it might be safer for you to be away from Lord Jarreau’s reach and kept your location a secret from him.”

Melinda wiped at her eyes. “Your father has our gratitude for his intervention. Had Angelica not been here, we might all have been killed.” She hugged Toby and Tam. “Where is she now?”

Strass said, “After her report, Father paid her for completion of her assignment, and she left.”

When Strass picked Tracy up to carry her to her bathroom, it was an obvious strain for him, but he pretended otherwise.

“Did you get blasted, too?” Tracy asked.

Sympathetically, Strass said, “I was only grazed, and it hurt considerably. I can only imagine the pain in which you must be.” He gave her some privacy until she called for help.

After she was back in her bed, she closed her eyes against the throbbing pain in her leg that had been made worse by getting up. She kept her eyes closed as the doctor checked her bandages. Her entire thigh pulsed with an attention stealing pain.

Quietly, Melinda said, “I’ll go get you some tea. Boys, come help me with your sister’s tray.”

“I will accompany you. Other than continuing to monitor Tracy, my only use in the room is as an unwanted chaperone,” the doctor said.

After they had gone, Tracy stared after them. “What will become of my mother?”

Strass said, “You are not to worry. Father is seeing to all of her legal matters. She will retain this property along with all of Jarreau’s credits and holdings. She is his wife, and his transgressions were against your family.”

“You really did intend to marry me. Didn’t you?”

Strass nodded. Carefully, he sat beside her on her bed.

“I was filling out an application when I found proof against Duran. I had already decided to leave. Strass, we liked each other, but we were never in love.”

“How can you be so sure?” he asked as he took her hand.

“Because, I know what love feels like now. There’s no mistaking it for anything else. I love my husband, Jazon.” Tracy looked into Strass’ eyes and could see the disappointment and sadness that her words had caused him.

A cough sounded from the doorway. Tracy’s eyes darted from Strass to Jazon. He wore the uniform of the Omnes Videntes, along with several weapons, many of which were knives. Strass paled and stood from where he had sat on the edge of Tracy’s bed. Tracy worried that Jazon might spank Strass as he had repeatedly threatened to do. He surprised her by smiling and raising his hands with his palms facing forward. Strass raised his hands and shared in the traditional Laconian greeting.

“Master Strass, I apologize for the ruse I used when we first spoke. Our mission necessitated that we go undercover to apprehend wanted fugitives.”

“I understand, sir.”

Seeing Strass and Jazon side by side was a shock. Strass looked tiny and fragile next to Jazon. Jazon looked like a lethal predator ready to strike. Looking at him made her ache in an area other than her thigh, and Jazon knew it. A devilish grin lifted the corners of his mouth. “I am in your debt. Thank you for protecting my family.”

Strass’ face darkened. “This should have been my family.” Strass turned to Tracy. “If he ever mistreats you in any way, I will make him answer for it. Should you ever change your mind, I will accept you as one of my wives.” Strass glared up at Jazon, kissed Tracy’s hand, and left.

Tracy held her breath. When Jazon made no move to go after Strass and punch him, she started to breathe again. Instead, he moved around her room and looked at her things. Melinda and the boys brought Tracy her tray. Her brothers stared at Jazon with their mouths hanging open.

“Toby and Tam, stop that right now. This is your Uncle Jazon. He took your sister as his first wife. Be polite,” Melinda scolded.

“Can we take him with us to the park? Please?” Toby begged.

“Why would you want to do that?” Melinda asked.

“None of the boys are going to believe us if we don’t!” Tam said.

“Yeah, we have a hybrid soldier, and they don’t,” Toby said.

Tracy’s face began to burn. Her little brothers wanted to show her husband off as if he was some kind of freak.

“I can spare a few minutes,” Jazon said. Toby and Tam ran to Jazon, grabbed his hands, and began pulling him from Tracy’s room, all while laughing. “Halt,” Jazon ordered. Her little brothers froze. Jazon took Tracy’s hand, kissed her fingers, and whispered, “It’s not like that. It’s a boy thing. You wouldn’t get it.”

Then, she was alone with her mother and began to fear the worst. “Tracy, he isn’t an oddity to them. They have lost their father and a stepfather in a short period of time. To your brothers, Jazon is a symbol of powerful protection against that which they have no control. I regret not listening to you. You distrusted Duran all along. I don’t understand why I paid no heed to your thoughts.”

“Yes, you do. He wouldn’t allow it. He hid one of my own memories from me of an argument he had with father. Oh, that reminds me. Here.” Tracy removed the lanyard from her neck from which her father’s stylus still hung.

Her mother held it in her hands. “No, Tracy. You should keep this. Let me find something nicer from which to hang it. I’ll be right back. Drink your tea.”

“Mother?”

Melinda turned back to her. “Are you okay about Jazon?”

“He may take some getting used to. He isn’t what I expected. At least his love for you is blatantly obvious. I didn’t want you to settle. You wouldn’t have been happy with Strass, not the way I was with Nathan. I want happiness for you.” Her mother smiled sadly at her before turning and walking from the room.

Tracy was napping when Jazon returned with the boys. Her mother had attached her father’s stylus to an intricate silver chain that had been in their family for generations. Her brothers came to her room to show off their stuffed ice bears that Jazon had bought for them.

“Did you really almost get eaten by an ice bear?” Tam asked.

“Yes, it was horrible.”

Jazon handed Tracy a small bouquet of blue and white flowers. “Jazon, they’re beautiful. Thank you.”

“Show her what’s behind your back, now,” Toby said while hanging from Jazon’s arm.

Jazon grinned and handed Tracy a jewelry box. Melinda peeked over Tracy’s shoulder. “Oh, Jazon.” Tracy’s heart fluttered into her stomach as she remembered the words she had said to him. At the ring’s center was a large green pearl, and it was surrounded by diamonds. Jazon pulled it from the box and slid it onto her finger.

“He had it specially treated, so you can get it wet, and it won’t mess up,” Toby said.

“Our ship readies for departure. Is there anything you would like to pack?”

Tracy forced her eyes from the ring up to Jazon. “Um, yeah. My clothes and things. I want my doll collection.”

“Doll collection?” Jazon asked.

“I’ll show you,” Tam offered. Under his breath, he said, “It’s a good thing you’re brave.”

Tracy’s dolls filled a shelved wall in her closet. Hundreds of black eyes stared back at him. “Stars,” Jazon muttered. He called the ship for backup.

Chapter Fourteen

After enlisting the aid of Parvac soldiers, Jazon had all of Tracy’s possessions packed and loaded into the back of a large land transport. A crowd of young boys had watched from their yards around the wealthy neighborhood. Tracy’s friends had come to say their goodbyes in person. It had caused his wife sadness to say farewell to her friend, Jaimie. Worse was the goodbye she now said to her mother.

“You will come back to visit?” Melinda asked.

“I assure you. We will visit each time we return to the Laconian Sector,” Jazon promised.

Melinda kissed Jazon’s cheek. “You’ll take care of her?”

“I will.” As a favor to his mother-in-law, he had bound his new nephews to himself telepathically to provide them with the mental stability they had lost once again when their stepfather had been assassinated. He calmed his mother-in-law’s emotions and kissed her cheek in return.

Tracy and her mother waved to each other until their transport was out of sight. The large land transport was unloaded by the time they drove up the ramp and into the warship. Jazon was as gentle as possible with Tracy as he carried her into the lift and to the infirmary. She was paler than usual with pain.

“What about the sea stars?” Tracy asked.

“They are in our room.”

“Oh. Oh, no. What about Andy?” Anguish laced her words.

“He is in the infirmary.”

“Is he okay?”

“Yes, he got a new look, a permanent one.” The doors to the infirmary made a slight puff of sound as they entered. “Dr. Avitus, I have a patient for you.” Gently, Jazon placed Tracy on an exam bed.

A handsome man on the exam bed beside her smiled at her. Tracy blushed at him and worried Jazon might punch him for flirting with her. The man looked hurt by her behavior.

Jazon spoke to him. “It’s a good thing, Andy. If Tracy didn’t recognize you, no one will.” Andy’s reconstructive surgery had been quickly approved, so there was hope he would be granted citizenship as a sentient individual. Jazon, Agata, and Vasco had spoken on his behalf.

“Andy, is that you?” When he smiled at her again, there was no mistaking him.

“Yes, Tracy.”

“Thank the stars you’re okay.” It wasn’t enough of a surprise to distract her from the pain when Dr. Avitus began unwrapping the bandages around her left thigh. “Oh, sick.” There was a bloody hole through her leg where the assassin had blasted her with his highest setting. Purple bruising surrounded it.

“Lean back, and don’t look at it,” Jazon said as he helped her to recline back on the pillow.

“I’ll begin another nanite series, and I’m keeping her here for a few days,” Dr. Avitus stated.

Tracy held Jazon’s hand and did her best not to cry. Then, she began looking around the infirmary. She had never before been aboard a Parvac warship. “Oh,” Tracy said.

“What is it, darling?” Jazon asked. He smoothed her hair away from her face with his fingers.

“Parvac pain patches are stronger.” Tracy’s eyelids became too heavy for her.

“Keep her safe, Andy. I’ll be back.”

“I will,” Andy promised.

Jazon had to work off his rage. Felix’s assassin might have permanently crippled his wife. Had the shot been any higher, she would have died. He had stopped short of beating the bastard to death, but only because he wanted to watch his execution. Jazon, Agata, and Vasco had received praise for the destruction of the clones and the arrests of the scientists. Vice Admiral Kane Valen had been deployed to assist them while they had been on Leucon undergoing decontamination and had only recently docked his warship on Aurilius.

Jazon arrived at the gym and went into the dressing room to change out of his uniform. After entering the ring, he had to wait a few moments before the soldiers who were present managed to convince someone to join him.

“Two more,” Jazon called out.

Once there were three Parvac soldiers in the ring with him, the sparring began. Jazon tried to clear his mind and concentrate on the match. One of the soldiers made contact with his jaw. While deflecting their blows and kicks and throwing a few punches of his own, Jazon’s thoughts returned to Tracy. Vasco had gotten to her quickly after the assassin had shot her. He was good with blaster wounds. Tracy’s family physician had taken over from there. Seeing her pale, injured, in pain, and being unable to do anything about it had been infuriating.

That the man had tranquilized both Tracy and her mother, taken them from Sinope, successfully tricked Jazon and his team that the serum was his objective, tried to bury them beneath a pile of rubble, and shot his wife filled him with rage. However, ordering the traitorous inquisitor’s death was the Emperor’s right.

“Enough! Enough!” a man called out.

Jazon froze. The three soldiers were down, drenched in sweat, and breathing heavily.

“Feeling better?” Kane asked. Vice Admiral Kane Valen was tall for a male, heavily muscled, and had the same dirty-blonde hair and green and gold eyes as his cousin, Teagan.

The other occupants of the gym were silent. Jazon glanced around at the soldiers who had been watching the match. His skill in the ring impressed them. Jazon glanced over at Kane and climbed out of the ring. “He could have killed my wife. I almost lost her. Aww, shit.” He bowed his head. The moisture running down his face wasn’t sweat. Kane helped him remove his gloves and handed him a towel. Jazon used it to wipe away his tears.

“Dr. Avitus believes she will make a full recovery.” Kane scrunched up his face. He leaned in closer and gave Jazon a sniff. “Jazon, you stink. You really stink. Take a shower before you return to your wife. You wouldn’t want her passing out from the smell.”

Jazon chuckled at him. “Yes, sir.”

Jazon had showered and changed but paced the ship’s corridors restlessly. He sensed someone’s approach.

“What’s wrong now?” Kane asked. “That’s new carpeting you’re wearing out.”

“I don’t know. My mission is complete, and now I don’t know what I’m doing. I have a wife. I’ve never even had a girlfriend. Shouldn’t I bring her a present or something?”

“Yes, women like gifts. What does she like?”

Jazon cringed. “She collects dolls. She has so many dolls.”

Kane laughed. “I have just the thing. Come with me.”

Jazon followed Kane to his quarters. He pulled a crate out of his storage unit, opened it, and handed Jazon one of the dolls the Chan family of Arachne had been manufacturing to resemble Teagan, the Arachnean Princess.

“How many of those do you have?” Jazon asked incredulously.

“About fifty or so.”

“Why?”

Kane looked at Jazon as though he were an idiot. “To annoy my tiny cousin, of course. Why else?”

Tracy was still sleeping when Jazon arrived at the infirmary. He sat beside her and watched her sleep. Vasco came for Andy. He had watched over her while Jazon had been gone just like he said he would. When Tracy woke up in pain, Jazon did his best to hide it from her. After helping her see to her physical demands, he gave her the new doll. It got him a kiss.

Dr. Avitus decided to keep Tracy under observation in the infirmary for the duration of the return journey to Parvac. The severity of her injury required uninterrupted nanite therapy, antibiotics, and pain patches. Keeping her comfortable and still was the best way to assist with her recovery. Unfortunately, Jazon wasn’t royalty and wouldn’t be getting any special treatment. Dr. Avitus had no intentions of allowing him to sleep beside his wife in the infirmary. He was forced to return to his quarters each night to sleep alone.

By the time the warship arrived in Parvac space, Jazon was eager to be free of Dr. Avitus’ tyranny, even if it meant being at the mercy of either Dr. Phillip Svenson or Dr. Ryan Fotri, the two private physicians in service to House Probus.

Chapter Fifteen

Finally, Kane’s warship docked on Parvac. Jazon kept Tracy onboard until he received confirmation that the prisoner had been relocated to a secure facility to await his trial. Only then with Dr. Avitus’ assistance did he load Tracy into a transport. She had been healing. However, as her nerves healed, her pain worsened. Every time her leg was moved or jostled, it hurt her. Jazon had been in constant contact with his brothers, so they knew what to expect.

Teagan had promised to keep their welcome simple and had insisted that the two of them remain in her wing of the Palace until the time came when Tracy had made a full recovery. However, when Jazon told her of the invitation, Tracy got upset.

“What about Andy? We can’t just leave him. He belongs with us! We’re the only family he knows.” Tired from the pain the transport ride was causing her, she started to cry.

Jazon panicked. “Please, don’t cry, Tracy. Andy is going to stay with Agata and his family for the time being until his family meets him and comes to a decision.”

“So, he won’t be executed?”

“No, he won’t be.”

She wiped at her eyes, embarrassed at her outburst. “Does Dr. Arellano know?”

“He does. He spoke to Andy, but Andy doesn’t remember him. Cognitively, he was too young to remember him. As far as Andy is concerned, you are his mother.”

“Then, he should be with us,” she pleaded.

“Tracy, mentally, he is a young man now. He was a young man on Aurilius when he saw a man hurting his mother. His intervention, along with that of the spy Lord Radford hired, bought us the time we needed. It’s time for Andy to start making his own choices. Now, I’ve met your family. It’s your turn to meet mine.”

The transport had come to a stop in front of the Palace. Rozz opened the transport door for them while Jazon carefully lifted Tracy from it. She had been too upset to pay attention to Parvac. For a moment, she noticed the pink and orange sky. Tracy rested her head on Jazon’s shoulder. He carried her past uniformed Laconian hybrids who held open the Palace doors for them. Then, he placed her on a couch in a white sitting room accented with blue pillows and vases full of fresh flowers.

Dr. Avitus had fitted her thigh with a protective brace to prevent it from being touched while she healed. She was grateful for it since the pain seemed to become worse each day. Tracy learned that she was capable of feeling more than just pain. Jealously suffused her being when beautiful women began hugging her husband.

A male with long, grey hair distracted her. “Welcome to our family, Tracy. I am Zared.” He pointed at the women. “She is my wife, Teagan. The woman with her is her mother, Empress Neema.”

“Chirp! Chirp!”

Zared looked down. “Would you like to meet an Arachnean Silk spider?”

Tracy forgot her jealousy. “Oh, yes!”

“Thunderdrop, this is Tracy.”

Thunderdrop climbed up beside her on the couch. While Tracy petted the sentient spider, Jazon put a pillow under her left knee.

“You are amazing. You have such beautiful coloration, Thunderdrop. I understand how you got your name. Your abdomen resembles a cloud heavy with rain.”

“Chirp!”

“I have just the thing to help you get around the Palace, Tracy,” Zared said with a smile. “It is a hover chair for which I no longer have any use.”

Jazon continued to shield Tracy from the pain of her wound, but he knew the short drive had tired her. He was too concerned with her well-being to allow his brothers’ telepathic teasing to affect him. Izaac was the worst of the bunch. Into his mind, his brother asked, “What’s your wife’s name? Is it Sara? No, Tracy is her name. That’s right.”

“Her black hair and eyes are a coincidence, nothing more. She is beautiful, though. Isn’t she?” Jazon’s telepathic question was rhetorical. He was smitten with his wife.

Tracy watched as the two royal ladies practically floated across the floor to her in their gorgeous dresses. Tracy was all too aware of her T-shirt and jogging pants, the left leg of which had been cutoff well above her knee. She blushed and tried to smooth her hair.

“Hello, Tracy. I’m Teagan. Welcome home.”

“Thank you. It’s nice to meet you.”

“Tracy, I’m Neema, Teagan’s mother. I sympathize with your injury. The detestable male responsible will never hurt you again.”

“He is detestable. What he did to Duran while my mother watched….” Tracy shuddered. “I’m relieved Jazon caught him, and we won’t have to worry about him anymore. I was terrified of what he would do to Andy. I feared my sweet boy would be warped into someone unrecognizable.” Tracy noticed the fear that entered the eyes of both ladies at the mention of Andy’s name. “Andy is a completely different person. He is kind and gentle.” She could sense the ladies didn’t believe her.

“He could be tricking you,” Teagan said.

“No, I’m a telepath, but he wouldn’t be able to trick Jazon. My husband is strong. No one can trick him.” Tracy proclaimed as though daring Teagan to argue.

Teagan laughed. “I suppose you’re right.”

After Tracy had met his brothers and the entire Imperial family, Jazon insisted on taking her to the infirmary for a new pain patch. Then, he carried her to the room Teagan had prepared for them and held her while she took a nap. She had met everyone. Tracy had been jealous of Teagan, hadn’t been sure what to think of Sparrow, but had made an instant connection with both Violet and Princess Neema. In his absence, Neema had become obsessed with toy blasters and dolls. She either dressed her dolls up or had them fighting battles with Niklos, her little brother. Tracy had a playdate set up with Neema for after naptime.

When she opened her eyes, she found herself snuggled against Jazon’s chest with her left leg propped up with pillows. “This is nice,” Tracy said as she looked around at the lavish room. Her observations were interrupted by her mother. The enormity of her daughter’s relocation to the Parvac Empire had finally hit her. Jazon held the vid-screen for her. “Mother, I’m fine. It’s beautiful here. I’m staying at a palace with the royal family.”

“You’re so far away. How is your leg?” Melinda asked as she wiped at her tears.

“It hurts. I start physical therapy tomorrow. I’m not looking forward to that, but I do have plans to go out sightseeing with Violet. She’s Arachnean. We’re getting our hair done, having lunch, and maybe doing a little shopping if I can handle it. My typical attire doesn’t mesh with this place too much.”

“You will call me?”

“Yes, Mother.” Tracy ended the call.

Jazon grinned at her. Soon after their arrival, he, Agata, and Vasco had been awarded medals for their outstanding bravery in service to the Empire. “It’s still naptime,” he said. Tracy giggled at him as he undressed her with the same gentle care he had used earlier while changing the diaper of Peter, Teagan’s youngest son. However, soon afterwards her giggles changed to satisfied sighs.

A few days later, Tracy hadn’t worn any of the beautiful clothes she had purchased while out shopping with Violet, her daughter, Poppy, and her husband, Kaoti. Instead, she wore an old stained pair of shorts and one of her academy T-shirts. Dr. Phillip Svenson, the human doctor who served as the family physician of Princess Probus’ household, gave her a smile that made her stomach flutter. His blue eyes twinkled at her like sunlight reflecting off of ocean water. He had his hand wrapped around her left ankle with his other hand flat in front of her toes.

“Touch your toes to my hand,” Phillip ordered.

“It hurts.”

“Just try,” Phillip coaxed. Tracy pushed through the burning pain and touched his palm with her big toe. He made her repeat the exercise five time. Phillip lifted her ankle. “Don’t tense up. I’ve got you. Just relax. Now, circle your ankle.” Once Tracy was in tears, he stopped, gave her a pain patch, and sent her to the hydrotherapy tub.

“How is she?” Jazon asked.

“She’s gorgeous, smart, and so sassy. The skin on her legs is so incredibly soft.” Deliberately, Phillip began thinking of how those soft legs would feel wrapped around his back.

“Don’t even think about it,” Jazon warned.

“What? I was thinking of offering myself to her in proper Parvac fashion. Don’t you want to be my co-husband?” Phillip asked with a wink.

“It is good for your sake that I know you are only teasing me.”

Phillip laughed. “Seriously, it won’t be easy, but the prognosis is good. Her epidermal layer is healed, but it will take time for the nanites to heal the scarring. Retraining her muscles will be the most challenging aspect of her recovery. Tracy isn’t going to like it, but I’m taking the hover chair away from her next week.”

“It’s too soon. Moving her leg hurts her enough. I will not allow my wife to suffer needlessly.”

“She has to work through it and start using her leg. Otherwise, she might become psychologically addicted to that chair.” Phillip waited until Jazon’s helpless anger dissipated. “Did you know she likes to go fishing? Why don’t the two of you come out on the lake with Fitz and me in the morning? Don’t worry, Jazon. We’ll have her back to normal in time for our Thalassan vacation.” Phillip winked at him.

Emperor Probus had been planning an elaborate vacation for his household for weeks. The elimination of Felix’s clones had done much to alleviate the apprehension of the Imperial family.

“I can’t wait to see your wife on the beach,” Phillip said suggestively.

Jazon pulled back his fist.

Zared caught the blow moments before it made contact with Phillip’s nose. “You would be wise to resist tormenting my brother,” Zared said.

“I can’t help it. It’s so easy. I’ll go check on Tracy in the hydrotherapy bath. Maybe, she needs help drying off.” Phillip sauntered off.

“He’s just doing it to annoy you.”

Jazon met his brother’s eyes. “We need to find that man a wife.”

“Agreed.”

“Do you have any updates?”

“The assassin has been questioned, tried, and will be executed. Andy has been awarded sentient status and citizenship. He has been claimed by House Jiri and will reside on Thalassa.”

“Is Teagan okay with Andy?”

“No, she and her mother are frightened of him. It will take time before he earns their trust.”

“You’ve explained about Andy to Teagan?”

“I have. However, logic sometimes banishes fear slowly.”

“Why do you have to be so pushy? What’s the rush? I’m not ready for this,” Tracy yelled irately at Phillip. She had her right arm around his neck. He was helping her hobble to her chair. “Jazon!”

“Yes, my darling?”

“Can we go now?”

He waited to answer until he received a nod from Phillip. Tracy was eager to leave the infirmary. In the hall, Jazon and Zared walked to either side of Tracy in her borrowed hover chair. She stopped suddenly.

“Are you alright?” Jazon asked.

“No.”

Zared moved aside and gave his attention to a painting hanging on the wall.

“What’s wrong?” Jazon asked as he crouched down beside her.

“You know what’s wrong. There was a hole through my leg. It still hurts. Why are you letting Dr. Svenson push me so hard?” Tracy frowned at him with tears in her black eyes.

Jazon kneeled down in front of her and took her hands in his. “If you are content to spend the remainder of your life in this chair, you may do so. However, if you would prefer to have the use of your leg, you will follow Dr. Svenson’s instructions. He is the finest physician I know.”

“Aww, shucks, Jazon. You say the sweetest things,” Phillip said as he walked by. He blew a kiss at Jazon and batted his eyelashes at him.

“Back off, Dr. Svenson. He’s mine,” Tracy said.

Loud male laughter filled the hall.

The next morning, Tracy was eager to leave the Palace and go out fishing. Doing something normal in the midst of living on an alien world with royalty was surreal. “Do you know what Princess Probus asked me?” Tracy cast her line out into the lake. Her question had been asked in a whisper so as not to scare the fish. Both Fitz and Phillip were impressed with her technique which filled Jazon with pride.

“What?” Phillip asked. He thought Tracy was cute. However, Jazon kept sending him mental images of broken bones protruding through skin each time he had inappropriate thoughts about her.

“She asked me if I knew Consul Dano! Me! As if I would have ever even seen in person one of the rulers of my home world and the rest of the Laconian Sector. I’ve only ever seen him on the vid-screen.”

“Yes, we’ve stayed at his house. He took Teagan out shopping and everything,” Phillip said.

Tracy’s eyes got even bigger in her round face. “I can’t seem to get comfortable with all of this. Aren’t you nervous about being around all of these powerful, high-class people?”

“I was nervous when I first met Emperor Probus, but he’s Cupcake’s father. So, I decided he was family and moved on,” Phillip said.

Tracy looked over at Fitz for his opinion. He gave her the practiced smile of a politician. “My father is the Praetor of Thalassa. I’ve known Tavere all of my life. Also, Teagan is my wife.”

Tracy blushed and gaped at him. “So, you’re royalty, too. But, you seem so normal.”

Fitz laughed. “After you get to know everyone better, you won’t be so nervous around them.”

Tracy felt a tug on her line, reeled in her fish, took a few pictures and scans of it, and then released it back into the lake.

“What’d you do that for?” Phillip asked.

“You’re eating them?”

“Well, yes. We always do.”

“Fine. I can catch more fish than any of you,” she said.

“No, you can’t. You’re just a girl,” Jazon quipped.

By the end of the morning, Fitz had caught the most fish, but Tracy had come in second. “Jazon, what about the men who were working with the assassin, the ones who flew the fighters and helped him board our ship?”

Jazon pulled Tracy onto his lap, which jostled the boat, and kissed Tracy’s sunburned nose. “Agata and Vasco got them. Don’t worry.”

“What if there are more of them, and they try to take Andy?”

Fitz said, “They would fail. Andy belongs to House Jiri. We take care of our own.”

The day came when Phillip took Tracy’s hover chair away. Jazon was on duty, and Tracy was exhausted simply from showering and getting dressed. She was wearing one of her new Parvac dresses. It was rather risqué compared to the fashions of Aurilius. However, the pale-blue fabric and style were very becoming. She sat on the edge of the bed. Each step she took on her left leg agonized her, and the hall leading to the sitting room seemed daunting. While contemplating what to do, a knock sounded on her door.

“Come in,” Tracy said. Princess Probus opened the door. Surprised, Tracy stood and managed a curtsey. “Princess Probus, good morning.”

“Tracy, my name is Teagan. Call me Teagan. I started to worry about you. Aren’t you coming out to the patio for breakfast?”

“I’m not sure. Jazon isn’t here, Phillip took the hover chair away, and it seems like such a long walk.”

Teagan walked into the room and spotted the cane Tracy’s brothers had given to her. “Here. Use this, and I’ll help you, too. We’ll go together.” Teagan pulled Tracy’s arm around her neck. Together, they began the walk down the hall. They took a few brief breaks before making it out to the patio. Teagan’s husband, Yukihyo, held out chairs for each of them.

Phillip winked at Tracy from across the table. “See, I knew you could do it. Now that you are better, we need to take you shopping for proper swimming attire. I know just the place.”

“Phillip, stop teasing Tracy,” Teagan said with a scowl.

Phillip tried to look hurt. “I’m not. It’s her husband who needs to be teased. Have you seen how he looks at her?” He mimicked a love-struck expression.

Tracy blushed and smiled. “He is the sweetest and most romantic male I have ever met.” She began thinking about Thalassa and what she had learned of it. “You’re right, Dr. Svenson. I do need things for the trip. I will not allow another female to steal Jazon’s attention from me.”

“Oh, you don’t have to worry about that happening,” Yukihyo said. Phillip kicked him under the table and shot him a warning look.

“I need things, too,” Sparrow said.

“Is Phillip taking us shopping?” Violet asked.

“Yes, he’s buying us everything we want and carrying all of our bags,” Teagan said.

“Only on the condition that I get to pick out one thing for each of you, and you have to wear it into the ocean,” Phillip said.

Sparrow stared at Phillip. “Xavier told me that clothing isn’t worn into the water. Why would you have us do so?”

Yukihyo smirked at Phillip.

Jazon, Xavier, Zared, and Kaoti spent the day guarding Teagan and their wives while they shopped. After the first hour, Phillip had surprised Tracy with the hover chair that he had packed into the trunk of the transport.

“Tracy is beginning to feel like she belongs. She has been homesick.” Jazon smiled. Over lunch, Tracy had told the other ladies about their adventures on Leucon with clones, ice bears, and rats.

“Sparrow is enjoying herself. Her feelings of awkwardness have diminished significantly,” Xavier said. He watched as Sparrow laughed. It made her brown curls spill forward.

“Violet was terrified of all things Parvac at one time,” Kaoti said.

“Teagan was as well,” Zared said.

They all laughed.

“We have wives,” Jazon said in disbelief.

After they had returned to their bedroom in the Palace, Tracy asked, “Are you ready to tell me which of my purchases you like? I’m accustomed to dressing for working in a lab, conducting field research, or attending classes.”

“Yes,” Jazon responded while giving her a serious look.

She was sitting on the bed where he had placed her. “Okay. Bring me that bag.”

“No.”

“What?”

“Tracy, at the moment, the only thing I want covering you is me.”

Tracy watched as he removed his shirt. Once he stood before her completely nude, her eyes went black. “I’ve never wanted you more than I want you right now, Jazon Ponidi.”

Jazon grinned, “If you want me, come and get me.”

It took some effort, but she caught him, and she didn’t let him go.

The End

Thank you for reading Jazon’s story! If you enjoyed it, please let me know by leaving a review on Amazon. I would love to hear from you.