The shuttle slowed and landed softly without so much as a bump. Nima rose and distributed Ylian side arms. “Do you need me to show you how to use these?”

Asa studied the buttons on the side of the weapon. “Beno showed us. I remember.”

“Good.” She tucked two extra units into her jumpsuit pockets. “Let’s go.”

They exited the little ship, which was resting on the green grass of a rolling meadow. In the center of the field was a low building that was barely visible in the darkness. A cloud of mist clung to the building, obscuring it further, and Sera was instantly reminded of the clouds that surrounded Itzela. 

“They’re in there,” she said, positive that she already knew the answer.

“Yes,” Nima nodded. “I can get you inside, but after that, you’ll have to lead us.”

“I can do that.”

The Ylian woman led them across the field, moving swiftly and silently. Sera thought she would have difficulty keeping up, but she managed to stay on Nima’s heels. The group stopped at a service bay door that was padlocked shut. Nima shot the padlock, and its loop melted away. 

“I’m assuming that’s the kill setting,” Asa whispered.

Nima gave him a scathing look, and he fell silent again.  The door groaned as she opened it, and they waited for a long breathless moment for someone to react or come to investigate. Nobody did.

The Ylian soldier looked at Sera and nodded to her. She understood the signal and put her hand on her belly, hoping that the baby wasn’t sleeping.

Find Daddy, she told her.

The baby stirred, and Sera briefly felt as if she were spinning in place, her sense of direction completely disrupted. She feared that she wouldn’t be able to find them, and that this experiment would fail. She struggled with the anxiety and tried to listen, and she was rewarded by a surge of happiness from the baby. She felt the urge to walk forward. She looked at Nima and nodded, then started down the darkened corridor.

She watched for soldiers or CIA agents as she walked, but it seemed that night time and the remoteness of the location had made them relax their guard. It wasn’t until she nudged her way around a corner and through a closed metal door that she encountered the first guard.

It was only one man, standing outside another closed door, his rifle hanging at his side by a shoulder strap. He looked up in surprise as the group came into view.

“Halt,” he ordered.

Elina fired, and the disrupting energy struck him in the chest. He stiffened, then fell to the floor with a clatter. Joely rushed forward and pressed her fingers to his neck.

“He’s alive.”

“Of course he is. I used the stun setting.”

Elina grabbed a set of keys from the man’s belt and flipped through them, testing each key on the locked door he had been guarding. Inside Sera, the baby pressed against her as if she was trying to push her mother to keep walking.

The door finally opened, and Sera led the way inside. She shivered as a frisson of anxiety flushed through her from her child, and she pointed her weapon ahead of her. The door opened into a tiny room lined with computers and monitors, with a door on either side of the display. A single man was sitting there, dozing in front of the screens, his ankles crossed and propped up on the desk in front of him.

Sera made certain that her weapon was set for stun, and she shot him.  He fell from his chair without waking up.

The monitors showed several rooms, all of them in shades of green as the cameras were set for night vision. Most of the rooms were empty except for machinery and equipment she could not identify, but two of the rooms that were shown were occupied.

Theyn was in one, lying on a narrow cot with an arm flung over his eyes. He was dressed in a T-shirt and jeans, but his feet were bare, and he looked thin. A dark cap was strapped over his head, and a tiny padlock at the corner of his jaw held the thing in place. His right hand was so heavily bandaged that it looked like a club.

The other showed Beno, looking much the worse for wear. His clothing was the same as Theyn’s, but he was even thinner, and his gaunt face was bruised and swollen. There was no furniture, as apparently his cot had been taken away. He was sitting with his feet flat on the floor and his legs bent up toward his chest, his arms folded on top of his knees. He, too, was wearing a dark cap, also padlocked into place, and he had acid burns on the side of his face near the lock. He was awake. His dark skin looked ashy, and it was clear from looking at him that he was ill.

The baby in her belly surged, and she felt compelled to go through the door on the left. She went to it and found that it was unlocked. Her team followed.

They found themselves in a corridor with six locked doors, three on either side. She ignored the first four and stopped in front of the last door on right, pressing her hand against the cold metal.

Beno, she called.

There was no response. Her baby kicked in frustration.

Nima was apparently in no mood to fumble with keys. She trained her weapon on the lock and melted the mechanism. The door swung open, and Beno leaped to his feet, wary and ready for a fight. When he saw Sera, his eyes widened and he nearly sagged with relief.

The baby kicked for all she was worth, and Sera was filled with second-hand elation. She stepped forward and embraced her mate, who held her tight. He pressed a kiss to her forehead and pulled back, looking in awe at her swollen belly.

“Look at you,” he breathed. “Look at both of you.”

Nima handed him a weapon, and to Sera’s dismay, he aimed it at the padlock at his temple and fired. The little lock melted and fell away, and while he gained a few burns from the experience, he was able to toss the telepathy-blocking cap aside.

“Theyn is across the hall,” he said.

Elina nodded. “We’re getting you both out of here.”

They wasted no time crossing the hall, and once again the lock was no match for Ylian weapons technology. Theyn did not react when they came in. Sera could barely even tell that he was breathing. Beno took one look at his partner and his face went grey, then dark with rage. He and Sera both went to him.

“Theyn,” she said. “Theyn, honey, wake up.”

Beno put his hand against his partner’s solar plexus, just like he’d done before in that hospital room in Mexico. This time, there was no glow, and no answering response from Theyn. Sera leaned over him, her belly with its precious passenger resting against his arm. She gently took his bandaged hand in hers.

“What did they do to you?”

The baby kicked, hard – hard enough to nearly knock the wind out of Sera. Beno put his weapon against the lock holding the offending cap onto his bondmate’s head, and he fired just long enough to soften the metal. He grabbed it and pulled it loose, then stripped the cap away. All of Theyn’s thick golden hair had been shaved, and angry burns in loosely concentric circles dotted his scalp.

“Jesus,” Asa said.

A new voice shouted in the corridor. “Stop right there!”

Joely took cover in the cell while Asa, Elina and Nima opened fire. Bullets responded, ripping into the wall over their heads. Sera covered Theyn with her body, and Beno covered them both. The baby kicked like her life depended on it and sent waves of distress through Sera.

In the darkness, two points of blazing blue lit up the room. Theyn had opened his eyes, and they were burning like never before.

Sera, he said. Beno.

We’re here, she answered. You’re going to be okay. We’ll get you out of here.

Another bullet smashed into the concrete wall, sending dust and fragments raining down on them. Theyn gently pushed the two of them back.

In the Ylian tongue, he said firmly, “Let me handle this.”

“Theyn – “ his companion began to protest.

“That was not a request.”

They moved back and gave him room. Theyn rose from the cot like an angry god, his eyes shining halogen-bright. He was trembling, and his scales were beginning to glow, too, wreathed in golden energy that hummed like electricity. He walked toward the door, and one of the soldiers fired at him. The bullet struck him in the chest but bounced harmlessly away.

“Enough,” he snarled. Sera had never heard so harsh a sound in his normally-gentle voice. He extended his good hand, and the gun of the soldier who had shot him flew into his grip. He crumpled it and threw it aside.

“Holy shit!” the soldier cried. Theyn gestured in the air, and the man flew down the hallway, slamming into the door and breaking it from its hinges. The door hit the floor with such force that it shattered, and the soldier lay silent and still.

Theyn walked farther into the hallway, and Asa fell back to give him room. Nima and Elina continued to fire, but when they saw him, they gaped in shock and stood aside, staring.

Theyn held out his hand again as the energy around his scales turned into white-hot tongues of flame. He was unaffected by the fire, but the heat drove the humans back. Their bullets would not penetrate his skin, and he was not slowing.

Again, he said, “Enough!”

He pushed both hands out in front of him, and twin columns of fire shot out of his palms, intertwining and merging into one. The control room exploded in a shower of sparks, and the monitors and all of the computers died a miserable, melting death.  The flame extended, burning a hole through the wall, and through the wall behind that one. None of the human guards remained standing.

Theyn dropped his hands, and the fire that laced his skin receded into a faint glow. He turned to face them, and his face was terrible in its ferocious beauty.

Beno pressed his fist to his heart. Beside him, Elina and Nima echoed the gesture.

Theyn spoke, and his voice was deeper and more resonant than before. “My people suffer and I will not tolerate more of this.”

Sera moved forward, passing the stunned reverence of her Ylian companions and the confusion of her human friends. She looked into his eyes as she approached, and he looked back, stoic.

“Do you know me, Theyn?” she asked. “Do you recognize me?”

He faltered for a moment, and the glowing in his eyes subsided. The light around his scales disappeared, and the moment passed, leaving Theyn standing in amazement.  “Sera?” His voice was quiet again, and when he looked down at her abdomen, tears sprang to his eyes. “The baby is so big! Has it been that long?”

She embraced him, and then Beno was there, too, holding them both in his powerful arms. Asa put his arm around Joely, who leaned into him in relief.

Elina gave them a moment, then went to power up the shuttle. She beckoned their human friends to follow her, and they did. After a moment more, Nima interrupted the mates’ embrace.

“There are more soldiers coming, and this is not a safe place to linger, Your Highness,” she told Theyn. “Please… let us take you out of here.”

He nodded. “Yes. Let’s go somewhere safe.”

She nodded, and they boarded the shuttle for the getaway.

The shuttle took them to another green meadow, this one in the valley between two peaks in the Ural mountain range.  The pastoral beauty was only slightly marred by the towering structure of a camouflage unit that rose hundreds of feet into the air. Dozens of workers scaled its sides, adjusting the thousands of crystals that made up the glittering sides of the planet’s next line of defense.

There was a landing strip with four other shuttles, and full-blooded Ylians came and went, their scales and eyes shining in the sun. The air smelled pure and clean, and the very ground felt sacred.

Theyn had been quiet since their departure, and Beno slept for the majority of the flight. Sera sat between them, comforting them and being comforted by close contact with the men she loved. The baby had settled down into a sleepy contentment, and now that they had landed, she was quiet.

A blue-eyed hybrid woman met them when the shuttle’s hatch opened, leading a team of other hybrids, most of them with golden eyes. They helped Theyn and Beno onto hovering stretchers and bore them into a glass-sided building near the airstrip.

Nima walked with Sera as they followed the medical team. “They will take good care of them, I promise you.”

“They had better.”