Page 16 of Cozy Prisons (Human Pets of Talin: Origins #4)
Daxus
As he held Nataly, Daxus debated about what should be done. What he’d witnessed was too startling to leave alone.
Earlier, he’d debated the wisdom of lurking outside her domicile. As the marks passed and nothing happened, he’d started to feel foolish. What did he expect? No one was going to intrude on Nataly’s evening. There certainly weren’t any gatherings going on that late that would draw her out.
Despite all of that, something kept him leaning against a nearby digger bot. The thing was missing the range-finding assembly at the top of its processing dome. The dome was probably inside with Nataly, waiting to be fixed.
He’d half convinced himself to leave when the door opened and Nataly appeared. He’d watched as she walked a set distance, turned, and walked back to her domicile. At first, he thought she’d forgotten something and returned to fetch it. Then she’d done the same action again. And again.
He couldn’t fathom what she was doing. It was clear she wasn’t searching for anything. Was this a form of exercise?
As he watched, he noticed her steps out were small and slow, and her return trip was always faster.
Then she’d almost appeared locked in place. Her body went stiff, and her breathing turned shallow and erratic. Fearful that she was about to have another episode and faint, he’d rushed to her side.
After seeing her hands, it was clear that something was terribly wrong. Whatever was going on was bad enough for her to cause self-injury!
He hoped she'd confide in him, but she acted as if it was nothing. Then she’d shut down.
Now she was in his arms, holding onto him as if he were the last solid thing in the world. He felt privileged to be here, but also completely inadequate to help her.
He didn’t want to betray Nataly’s confidence, but something needed to be done. If he waited, she might cause irreparable damage to herself!
The words he’d spoken to Palathum floated through his head. If he did this, he might never gain Nataly’s trust again. If he didn’t, they might all lose Nataly.
There was no choice; he needed to take her to Falkilm and tell the healer everything he’d seen.
Nataly
Waking up to the sensation of floating wasn’t a first for Nataly.
“Damn grav pusher is malfunctioning again,” she grumbled. “Why couldn’t it happen during working hours? I don’t want to get up and fix anything.”
A questioning rumble sounded. “There aren’t any grav pushers here.”
The unexpected answer and rumble made Nataly blink her eyes open. The first thing she saw was a Talin chest so close she could make out every seam between the keratin plates. The familiar voice and blue plating made Nataly smile.
“Daxus,” she murmured, rolling her head so she could look up at his face. That’s when she realized they were outside. Huh, that’s weird! “What’s going on?”
“I’m taking you to Healer Falkilm,” Daxus said. He was purring, but his voice was remote.
“Why?” she asked, her fuzzy brain trying to understand.
“You're ill,” Daxus answered. “You’ve been masking and pretending, but I can't ignore it any longer. You hurt yourself. It was mild, but what if I said nothing and something worse happened?”
By now, they were at the entrance to the medical building. When he walked in the front doors, Falkilm was there, waiting for them. “I have a bed ready. Bring her over here.”
The degree of Daxus’s betrayal finally hit her. Anger and hurt chased away the last of the sleepiness.
“Put me down!” she demanded.
As expected, Daxus ignored her and crossed the room to place her on a bed. The moment he stepped back, she moved to get down. Both Daxus and Falkilm rushed up to block her, almost as if they’d practiced it.
“I know you’re upset,” Falkilm said. “But this is for your own good.”
Nataly focused on the healer because Daxus was dead to her. “You will let me walk out of here, or there'll be consequences.”
Falkilm let out a quizzical rumble. “I’m sorry if you feel the need to cry or scream. I promise I won’t do anything to hurt you.”
“I’m not going to cry. I’m going to walk out of here and back home. Maybe I’ll visit you later, but nothing is happening tonight.”
She gave them one last chance, but they blocked her again.
With deadly calm, Nataly pointed a single finger at the healer. “You will regret this. Not me.”
Pulling a small round device out of her pocket, she tapped in a sequence. She was lucky she hadn’t changed into her sleeping clothes, or she wouldn’t have had the emergency orb with her.
“What’s that?” Daxus asked. She ignored him and watched the lights on the orb go from white to blue. Then she held it up to her mouth.
“Attention, attention, Daxus and Falkilm are holding Nataly in the medical building against her will. She’s tried to leave twice, but neither of them will allow it. She is perfectly healthy and doesn’t need medical intervention.”
Her voice echoed through the displays on both the front door and the door leading to Falkilm’s quarters.
“Why would you do that?” Falkilm asked.
“How did you do that?” Daxus asked.
Again, she ignored both of them. It might be the middle of the night, but she’d sent out the distress call. Her friends would be here any moment.
“Please understand that we only want to help you,” Falkilm said. “I know you might be upset by us taking control, but sometimes individuals can’t adequately judge their own health or needs.”
She slowly shook her head at Falkilm. “Am I a child?”
“No, you’re a human adult,” Falkilm answered.
“Am I dying right at this moment?” she asked.
“Not any faster than the rest of us.”
His answer was so typical of his literal brain that she almost smiled. It was too bad she was so angry; otherwise, she’d enjoy teasing him.
“Then why would you think I’m incapable of knowing what I need? Unless you believe I’m mentally inferior to you.”
Her words hung heavy in the air.
Then the doors to the medical building slid open, and Hale stomped in. “What the fuck do you think you're doing?” they shouted at Falkilm and Daxus. “Get away from her!”
Hale was holding something long and narrow in their hands. Then they rushed at the two Talins, stabbing the weapon at them. Hale was startlingly fast, and the Talins scrambled back to keep from getting impaled.
Now that they were closer, she could see that Hale was using one of the sampler poles from a survey bot. It was a good choice of weapon because it was about five feet long, incredibly strong, hollow, and sharp at one end.
“Run!” Hale shouted. “I’ll hold them off.”
Nataly jumped off the bed, but didn’t rush out of the room.
When she’d put out the distress call, she expected a bunch of people to gather and force Falkilm to let her go home with their numbers.
Hale was too new to know what the distress call meant, so they’d come in ready to fight for her freedom.
Damn, it was sweet but unnecessary.
“Hale, we aren’t going to hurt Nataly,” Daxus said, dodging another stab. “This is a medical intervention.”
“If she doesn’t want to be here, then it’s a kidnapping, not an intervention,” Hale snarled. When Falkilm and Daxus separated in an attempt to flank them, Hale performed some complicated footwork that ended with Nataly behind them and one of the exam tables between the humans and Talins.
It was going to be hard to convince Hale that Daxus and Falkilm didn’t mean any harm when the two kept acting like an opposing force. Instead of simply letting them back up and leave, the two tried to circle her and Hale again.
“Are you able to run?” Hale asked.
Before Nataly could answer, the doors slid open and the room filled with people. The questions of twenty people filled the room as they surrounded Nataly and Hale. Their close proximity forced Hale to lift the tip of his weapon and rest the butt on the ground or risk impaling someone by accident.
While Riff, Decard, and Illea faced Falkilm with angry faces and scathing words, Falkilm was doing his best to defend himself, but was wilting in the face of her friends.
Hale gave her a flummoxed look. “What’s going on?”
“This is what I meant to happen when I sent out the distress call,” Nataly explained. “We all band together. If a Talin thinks they can bully one of us, they have to face all of us.”
“You guys had this planned out in advance?” Hale asked, relaxing enough to rest the weapon on their shoulder and move closer to her.
“We knew it would be easy for the Talins to treat us like our opinions didn’t matter,” Nataly said as Falkilm found himself backed up against a wall when Illea poked him with a finger.
“We came up with this as a way to keep any of us from being singled out, intimidated, or forced. They think they know everything and forget that we’re just as smart as they are. ”
“And here I thought all of you blindly followed Palathum’s lead,” Hale said.
“We’ve never blindly followed anyone.” Nataly gave them a wry smile. “Honestly, I didn’t think I’d be the first one to have to use the system.”
More humans and some Talins came into the room. The humans immediately joined the group around Nataly and Hale while the Talins stayed near the door, unsure of what to do.
“Enough!” Daxus said with a loud challenging rattle. “Nataly needs to be cared for. She will stay here and everyone else will leave!”
Nataly smirked. She knew what was coming next. Half the people pressed in closer to her as a physical barrier, and the other half turned on Daxus.
“You’re not in charge of us!” Naj declared. “How dare you try to order us around!”
Those were the words Palathum heard as she entered, with Utharium right behind her. Everyone fell silent as Palathum surveyed the room. Nataly expected her to address Falkilm first, but no, Palathum settled her gaze on Nataly.
“Do you want to leave?”
“Yes,” Nataly said. “I didn’t ask to be here. Daxus carried me here while I was asleep."
“She cut her hands with her fingernails,” Daxus said, making several of the humans boo loudly at him.
“Palathum didn’t ask you anything!” Decard said.