Chapter 4
Debasement
Gaveer appeared at the tunnel entrance and waved for them to follow him. “A word of advice. Do not speak. Not to each other, and not to D’har Duruk unless he directly asks you a question.” His eyes dropped to Cooter’s rifle and he held out his hand. “I must take your weapons.”
“Ohhh, no.” Cooter pulled his beloved weapon out of reach. “Forget that.”
For the first time, a hard, angry look came over Gaveer’s face. “You must give me your weapons. If you do not, Duruk’s warriors will shoot and kill you the second they see you are armed.”
Sandow placed a hand on Cooter’s shoulder. “Jamse, it’s for our safety.”
Fullgrath stepped past Kelen to give his blaster to the Seneecian. The former weapons master cast Cooter a stern eye but said nothing. After another moment, Cooter finally relinquished the rifle.
They started to walk out of the tunnel when a soft cheep made Kelen pause. A glance over at Dox revealed Five sitting on the young man’s shoulders. The little furry creature knew something was amiss. Dox reached up to take his friend into his hand when Kelen stopped him.
“No, Dox. He has to stay here. He can’t come with us.”
“But…friend.” Dox gave her a pleading look.
Kelen shook her head. “He belongs here with his own kind,” she gently admonished.
A short conversation was exchanged. It was clear neither one wanted to part, but in the end Five allowed Dox to lower him to the ground. The furry gave one final heartbreaking chirp as Dox turned away.
With her arm around Dox’s shoulders, Kelen and the others followed the Seneecian out of the tunnel, through the temple, and over to the large, arching entrance where Kyber and the rest were waiting. She kept her face blank, but her eyes never left the cadre of Seneecian warriors who stood there with their weapons drawn.
More interesting was the big leader with the black fur. As she drew closer, she could see some resemblance in the man’s face. Also, that he had dark brown streaks in his pelt, whereas Kyber’s hair was totally black.
Duruk watched her with narrowed eyes as she approached and stopped beside Kyber. But when her husband reached over and took her hand in his, the Seneecian’s eyes widened in surprise. He started to say something when Kyber spoke first.
“This is Kelen Chambliss, my Confirmed.”
It was like watching a bomb go off amid the group of warriors. Shock and revulsion went through them, leaving them stunned in its wake.
Kelen saw Duruk’s nostrils flare. His breathing quickened, giving her the impression he was sniffing her. If he was, she knew she had to be giving off a noxious odor, considering she’d been wearing the same uniform for how many days?
Duruk gave her a second head-to-toe examination, strongly focusing on her genital area and breasts. She could imagine what he might be thinking. What did she look like unclothed? Bare skin and hairless. Probably judging how repulsed he would be if he tried to make love to such an abomination. When he turned his attention back to Kyber, he was barely able to keep his rising anger in check.
“You would besmirch our family house by claiming this gakking skint as your Confirmed?”
Kyber fired back. “Speak Terranese. They have earned that right.”
An odd expression crossed Duruk’s face and he took a step back. A faint smile curled one corner of his mouth. It resembled the same kind of jesting smile Kyber would give her. But in this case, instead of teasing her, Duruk’s was condescending.
“I see what you are doing. Very clever of you.”
“What do you mean?”
Duruk waved a finger at Kelen. “Claiming the female for yourself to protect her. A rather reckless move, and a foolhardy one. I did not expect this kind of duplicity from you.”
“I have claimed her,” Kyber murmured.
Duruk shook his head, clearly dismissing Kyber’s claim. Kelen started to rebuke the man, but Kyber must have suspected he would and squeezed her hand. She took the subtle hint and bit her lip.
Mellori and Sandow brought Plat forward. Duruk immediately stepped forward and removed the Seneecian’s gag.
“Arrest Kyber Nau!” Plat demanded. “Arrest him now!”
Kelen half-expected Duruk to order his men to reach for Kyber. If they did, she was prepared to throw herself in front of her husband. Instead, Duruk tilted his head to one side and eyed the former D’har for a moment. Giving a wave of his hand, a warrior moved up to cut Plat free of his bonds. The man quickly moved away from Kyber and his group to stand next to Duruk.
“Arrest Kyber Nau,” the Seneecian ordered again.
“We will discuss this when we return to the ship,” Duruk told him.
Plat opened his mouth again, thought better of it, and kept silent. Kelen gave the Seneecian a cold look, which the man caught. In return, he sneered at her. She had no doubt he would try to make Kyber and his men pay for what had been done to him, even though he had been the one to disregard their laws.
A warrior advanced toward Dox. The little man pressed closer to Kelen as the big striped Seneecian tried to grab the box Dox was holding. “Surrender your weapon.”
“It’s not a weapon,” Kelen argued. “It’s the transponder.”
Her remark caught Duruk’s attention. “Transponder?” He addressed Kyber, not her.
“Are you here because you received a signal for help from us?” Kyber questioned back.
“We did.” The man pointed at the box. “From that?”
“It is Bollian,” the warrior observed.
“Then take it,” Duruk ordered.
Dox made a little cry of protest as the transponder was jerked from his grasp and gave Kelen a helpless look, as if pleading for her to intervene. She shook her head to let him know she couldn’t do anything about it. Dox sighed dejectedly.
“How many of you are there?” Duruk demanded.
“Twelve, D’har,” another warrior responded.
“We will take half of you now to the ship,” the D’har stated. “The rest can wait for the shuttle to return.” He pointed out several of them to go first, when Kelen realized he included Kyber, herself, Kyber’s three crewmembers, and Plat. In other words, all but the Terrans. A cold possibility went through her, and she jerked on Kyber’s arm.
“Why are only the other Seneecians going up?”
Duruk paused, and it was at that moment she knew his deception. Unable to stop herself, she threw another question at her husband.
“Kyber, why is he leaving the Terrans behind, unless he never planned to return for them?”
The tension between species ramped up as Kyber and his brother squared off as the implication behind Duruk’s action became clear.
“Is that your strategy?” Kyber demanded in a dark voice. “Do you intend on leaving the others stranded here on this world?” Without waiting for the man to answer, he motioned for Jules, Mellori, and Massapa to step forward. After which he shoved Kelen and Dox in front of him. “Gaveer, accompany them. Make sure they are treated with…respect.”
Duruk stared at Kyber. Kelen watched as the D’har lifted his chin in a grandiose manner, and Kelen understood why her husband had never mentioned his brother before now. The man considered himself superior to all, especially to his own blood.
“You dare to tell me who I will take up to my ship?”
Astonishingly, Kyber released her hand and knelt to the man. The move seemed to surprise all of them as Kyber also bowed his head.
“I dare nothing, D’har Duruk. I humbly request that those I mentioned go ahead of me. The others and I will remain behind until you send the shuttle to retrieve us.”
A full minute passed. Kelen forced herself not to look at the D’har, fearing that he would consider it a personal affront if she did. The man was looking for a reason to decline Kyber’s request. What she nor the others expected was for him to capitulate.
“Veenosh Bareth, escort the prisoners to the shuttle.” Turning his back to Kyber, Duruk started back to the craft as four warriors gathered those whom Kyber had singled out.
As one warrior shoved her shoulder, urging her to move, she reached out to her husband. “Kyber.”
“Go with them.” His head remained bowed as he continued to kneel. “I will join you shortly.” It was part order, part plea. She didn’t need to understand the complexities of Seneecian protocols to know he was deliberately debasing himself in order to save their lives.
Another warrior confiscated the transmitter, jerking it from Dox’s hands. The little man cried out in protest, but Kelen hurried to shush him.
They were herded toward the shuttle as a group. Kelen glanced back at where four warriors remained behind to stand guard over Kyber and the others. Her husband never moved from his position.
They were shoved into the shuttle and made to buckle into the seats lining the bulkheads. The craft quickly lifted off, aiming for the warship orbiting overhead.
Kelen kept her eyes on the front windshield as the temple and surrounding landscape gradually shrank into view. The shuttle leveled off when they reached a certain altitude, and she finally got to see the incredible sight of the half world she’d crashed onto before the craft jetted into space. As they’d suspected, the planet had been sheared almost completely in half. At the northern tip a small portion jutted inward, reminding her of the way a dog sometimes tucked its tail between its legs. That northern tip was also capped in ice and snow. There was no sign of the volcanoes Kyber had mentioned. Perhaps they were on the back side, out of view. However, she thought she could see a faint plume of smoke rising in the atmosphere.
The planet looked as inhospitable and uninhabitable as they’d believed, and she knew the memory of their time there would remain with her for the rest of her life.