“S o, Ahnna Marcel. Thank you for joining us today.”
“Thank you for having us, Cara. It means a lot to me. I’ve wanted a chance to explain myself for some time, but I had to wait for certain events to conclude.”
“You’re referring, of course, to the recent raids on HD-X compounds across Earth, raids that have led to multiple arrests and the release of hundreds of children. Children like your son, Joseph, who have been, and I quote the UR news release, ‘systematically brainwashed with bigotry and hate for the Qui.’”
A burst of joy quelled Ahnna’s nerves. Why nerves pinged her stomach, she couldn’t say. She should be used to interviews, she’d done enough of them, but this one mattered. This interview was her choice. This interview could make a difference.
“Finding my son, Joseph, getting him back, has meant everything. I didn’t think he’d remember me, I was so nervous to meet him again, but when he saw me, he froze and stared for the longest time. And then he smiled.”
She had dropped to her knees as Joseph ran into her arms, a ten-year-old boy not too old to cry, young enough to remember the only mother he’d known. Their bond had not broken.
“That must have been a special moment.”
“For me and other mothers as well. I didn’t realize until that moment how much I resented HD-X, what they did to me, to every child subjected to their programming. The news release used the word brainwashed, and that’s accurate. It’s devastating to discover everything you believe is a lie, that you’ve been on the wrong path… causing harm, preparing to do harm… for years. Tierc did a lot of deprogramming of my beliefs in the Paragon galaxy, just by being him, and they say it takes a huge emotional experience to break through old thinking, and that’s true, but when I got back, and began to research history, properly, comparing different sources, sifting fact from myths and speculation and common misconception, that’s when I really understood what HD-X has done to me, to its members. That’s why I’m here.”
“You’ve written about your rehabilitation before, but why do you think HD-X has been so successful at indoctrinating young minds?”
“Well, you said it. Young minds. Believing in a cause validates your existence, your experience, the trauma of training, and then for the girls, losing a child. Believing becomes addictive and confronting those beliefs is scary, a trauma in itself, a mental withdrawal if you like. Remember, the members of Human Defense-X today are not the same people who hated the Qui Empire of three hundred years ago and who vowed to fight interspecies relations with their lives. Today’s members have been born out of institutionalized rape, and believe me, procedural insemination and forced pregnancy is a terrible violation for any woman. The offspring are then raised from their earliest years in a doctrine that taught us we were fighting the good cause. We had no opposing views to balance the argument. Resistance, disobedience, rebellion was crushed in childhood. We are victims of a fanatical terrorist regime. We need help, and rehabilitation, not incarceration.”
The audience seemed receptive, but stepping outside the news studio into the pouring rain, Ahnna couldn’t stop shaking. The sight of her son jumping out a ground vehicle and running towards her, his boots stomping out puddles like targeting missiles, chased the dark cobwebs of her past away. As Joseph wrapped his arms around her thighs, the rain stopped. Rays of sun squeezed through the clouds and hope bloomed anew. She watched the tall, dark handsome man walking towards her, her husband, mate, the father of her child, the best father she could have wanted for her son… her Qui.
He had stood by them both, through the good and bad, patiently working through Joseph’s distrust, supporting her when she’d broken down before her son’s obstinate hatred for the man she loved. Seven years of lies fed to her son could not be easily overturned, but slowly, steadily, the deprogramming drew back the beautiful boy she remembered. The psychologists warned her the teen years would test them the most, but Joseph paved the way for all HD-X children to follow.
Tierc leaned down and kissed her lips, pheromones igniting fires she had no chance of putting out until much later that night. “Well done.”
His words were warm, understated. Every time she put herself out there, she raised her profile, made her and her family a target for HD-X assassination attempts. Tierc called her a beacon of hope, a force for change. She could be no less and, despite the challenges ahead of them, they were together, building a family and a future. With her ferocious Qui lover at her side, they could face the perils of two universes and come out ahead of the game.
Ahnna smiled, felt a light kick, and pulled his hand down to press on her rounded belly. “Someone’s pleased to hear you.”
Thank you for reading Ceasefire: Team Orion Nebula!
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