Page 5 of Defiance (The Intersolar Union #7)

I hummed to myself, elbows balanced on my crossed legs as I bobbed my foot and scrolled through my holotab to pass the day childminding the clinic while Amelia was still in labor.

Four hours into my volunteer “shift”

and not a soul had come round. It was a pleasant change of pace, sitting in the air conditioning as the jungle heated up like a clothes dryer outside. The ferns pressed against the windows like they missed my misery, leaving trails of condensation on the glass.

Let the feckers wilt. I deserved a couple days without boob sweat, new freckles, and the constant game of, Is it perimenopause or is it just hot as balls?

Hssshhh.

The lobby doors slid open and I closed my holoscreen, uncrossing my legs. Heavy boots ascended the ramp and Imani walked in, looking formidable as always. She stood straight and tall, her vitiligo pink and dark currant red after her convergence with the head of security, Vindilus. The bumps that circled her forehead like a crown had been jarring when she first returned to the colony after their trip off-moon, but now I couldn’t imagine her as anything but a queen.

Still, it was strange to see her in the clinic if Pom Pom wasn’t there. She looked fine, and truthfully it was awkward. The last time we’d talked in private, she’d told me there were sex dolls wearing my body in illegal brothels. She didn’t know how many or how they’d gotten my genetic code, but apparently they were good at bartending. It was a chilling discovery for me. I’d done a stint in the local pub in my twenties.

“Morning.”

I waved, getting to my feet.

Imani smiled, shifting her weight as she unzipped a pouch on her belt.

“Good to see you, Charlie. Heard I’d find you over here.”

“Yup. Just filling in. Afraid my remedies are pretty limited, though. Poitín and plasters is all I’m good for.”

Imani raised a brow, pausing with her long, slender fingers in her pouch. “Poitín?”

I withdrew a silver flask from my back pocket and wiggled it between my fingers. It was whiskey–not moonshine–but it’d do in a pinch.

“Ireland’s duct tape, you know. Only thing holding us together. Do you need some?”

“No,”

Imani said with stoic amusement.

“But thank you.”

The conversation lulled as she stretched her heel and crossed her arms. She looked around the lobby, feigning interest in the plain white walls and plain white benches when really she was searching. The seams, the corners, the vents, and between the cushions. She tapped the only potted plant with her steel-toed boot and the red leaves shivered.

“I should really water that,”

I laughed half-heartedly, more nervous than a schoolgirl waiting for the headmaster. I felt found out, even though I’d done nothing wrong. I crossed my arms and hugged my elbows.

Imani noticed and stopped her inspection.

“You look cold. Care for some fresh air?”

she asked, sweeping her hand towards the doors.

“Oh, no, that’s—Okay then.”

She strode to the entrance and the doors slid open, leaving me no choice. My chilly forearms prickled with goosebumps from the temperature change as I followed after her.

Well, so much for a sweat-free, bug-free morning. We stepped outside and it was like walking into hot gel instead of air, the jungle buzzing with so many shivvies it was hard to hear myself think. I unzipped the front of my shirt to expose my sports bra to the air and tied my curls up to get them off my neck.

We strolled away from the prefab clinic, its white roof spotted with shedded bark and leaves. Imani rummaged further into her bag, a stitch between her eyebrows.

“Since we’re out here, I’d like to discuss something with you. Fair warning, it’s a bit… awkward.”

“I’ll take awkward over being in trouble any day,”

I laughed, relief flooding my system.

“Could have sworn I was in trouble.”

“Ha, not today.”

Imani smiled, squinting into the sun and showing off her brilliant white teeth. She was gorgeous with the daylight glinting off her golden eyes and that no-bullshit, all-love expression. I was struck by how lucky we all were to have her with us. Her balls were made of brass and her heart was two sizes too big.

I was still struck dumb when she withdrew a squat black cylinder about the size of a bottle cap and ushered me closer.

“This will probably be terrible,”

she warned.

“What will?”

Vwump.

“Feck’s sake!”

I gasped as my sight blinked out and my forearm went numb. I rubbed my eyes, covering them on instinct. It was an awful feeling, like velvet pressing against my eyeballs and static yarn rolling around inside my brain.

“Worse than I thought,”

she admitted with a hiss of discomfort. “Charlie?”

She patted her blind hands on my biceps, smacking my chin by accident.

“Don’t worry, won’t be long. I forced a software reboot with an electro-magnetic pulse.”

Imani’s accent was somehow thicker, less Americanized, and I realized she probably didn’t speak English most of the time. Swahili, maybe… Did that mean that when she heard me, I spoke in Swahili too?

“Wait. You shorted our bionics?!”

Glowing white dots popped across my vision as my eyes slowly adjusted to life on their own. I looked down at my forearm, squinting to see that nothing glowed beneath my skin where my holotab was grafted to my metacarpals and ulna. I rubbed at it, feeling oddly naked. Like the day I took off my wedding ring for good and couldn’t stop fussing with the smooth pail skin underneath.

“We don’t want any recordings. It’s a precaution.”

“There’s no gossip in the world juicy enough to warrant rebooting the robots in my brain,”

I complained, pulling on my earlobe to try to stop the ringing.

“Feck’s sake. And who’s ‘we?’”

I found Imani’s face swimming above mine and our eyes latched. Her deadly serious stare settled the string of curses at the tip of the tongue. When she saw I was done, she rolled her shoulders back and stood up straight.

“We really don’t have long, so I’m going to be blunt.”

“I really am in trouble, aren’t I?”

“It’s about the dolls.”

My expression darkened. All of my frustration evaporated.

I’d kept to myself in Renata just like I’d done back home. My divorce had been messy, public, and absolutely gutted me. Not because I’d tossed John—he could shove a pineapple up his arse—but because he’d won my family and friends in the battle. The past several years had been lonely and hollow, and I hadn’t expected for that to change in Renata either.

But after Imani went to Huajile, things changed. She believed in transparency and kept me informed, including me in places where my training made sense. It was thanks to Imani that I helped at the clinic and felt like I was becoming part of the fabric of our new home.

So even though I hated talking about the dolls, I moved closer.

“Okay. I’m listening.”

“How do you feel about the other species?”

The question confused me. It didn’t warrant the cloak-and-dagger bit.

“You mean the delegates? They’re good lads. I like them well enough.”

“How about hjarna? Advenans?”

I scoffed, my cheeks turning red.

“I’m not going to hold an entire species responsible for what happened to us. That sort of vitriol is reserved for the British. And I don’t think I’ve met an advenan, really, so can’t say.”

That caught Imani’s attention. Her brows rose with surprise.

“But Novak–”

She pressed her lips shut and started over, swallowing her words.

“I’ll make it short. Nothing from Huajile has made it into the news.”

“Not even the factory explosion?”

Imani shook her head once.

“None of it. The politics are complicated,”

she sighed, looking weary, “but Vindilus and I agree with Ferulis that no news means a bigger operation than we thought. Whatever Guei was doing with dolls like yours, it’s not about selling them to brothels. It might not even be about money.”

“I don’t know, isn’t it always about sex and power?”

I shrugged, sliding on my biologist’s tinfoil hat.

“The Occam’s Razor of biology.”

“Maybe not. There are cargo ships moving things in from the Outer Rim. They’re disappearing and manipulating their manifests to hide whatever it is through ghost markets and trading loopholes. Ferulis thinks something big is happening and if we sit on our hands, we’ll get eaten alive.”

She looked at me meaningfully.

“He wants to gain an advantage while they still don’t know we have the intel. There’s a charity event on the hjarna homeworld, and a human representative has been invited to go. He wants one of us to attend.”

I crossed my arms over my chest, jaw set tight.

“You need me to go and play the victim while I’m rubbing elbows? I get it. Amelia is literally in labor and Roz isn’t Rosie, but I’ll be honest. I’m not good at crying on cue unless I can chop some garlic first.”

Imani gave me an appreciative smile, but I could tell from the way it didn’t reach her eyes that I was on the wrong track.

“We want you to go, but not for the cameras. A covert elite named Novak Gaul arrived today with a midwife for Amelia.”

Imani stopped, her brow creased. She stared at her boots, convincing herself to continue.

“He’s a good man. Vin’s brother. He’s the one that killed Rosie.”

“Jaysus,”

I swore, brushing my nails through my messy bun. Our colony was protected by a wide range of killers with long receipts, but none of them had ever killed a human. Except for this one. Novak. I felt like I’d just floated off a continental shelf and the cold waters of the open ocean were waiting to swallow me whole.

“He didn’t know. He thought–”

She stopped herself again, looking anxiously down at her forearm where our holotabs might glow back to life at any second.

“He’s an advenan. They’re incredible trackers. Ferulis had him escort the midwife here so he could choose a human to use as bait.”

Imani held my stare.

“Novak said the strongest scent trail he can follow is the ‘woman with plaited copper silk that smells like the river.’ That’s you.”

This covert agent had chosen me because my smell was strong. I scoffed, rolling my eyes. I smelled fishy and felt cursed.

Imani put her hand on my bicep, reeling me back into the conversation while she still had time. She spoke quickly, feeling the tick of an invisible clock chasing us.

“A human on Guei’s home turf would be irresistible. She’ll try something somehow. We just don’t know what. Novak says that you’re the best fit, and I agree.”

“Oh sure, twenty years working in aquaculture really prepares you for the spotlight.”

A cold sweat trickled down my neck at the same time an absurd laugh bubbled up my throat. Me, going on a mission? I was just an ichthyologist with a few silver hairs in my eyebrows and a mean bicep flex from hauling nets. I wasn’t James Bond.

“What if I said you can do research while you’re there? Forget about the whole bait thing and just enjoy. Let Novak worry about the details.”

I squinted at her skeptically.

“And how am I supposed to forget about the bait thing exactly?”

Apparently this question was a trap, because Imani gave me a smug shrug. No one had ever looked more like Catwoman playing with her prey.

“Did you know that hjarna spawn breed? Or that their sight is like shrimp?”

I gasped, falling right into her claws.

“Shut up, what?! Do they see circularly polarized light? Feck, that’s incredible.”

Imani nodded her chin at my delighted hand-clapping.

“See? You don’t need to act, Charlie. Your enthusiasm is the perfect cover. And if something does happen, Novak will be there to keep you safe.”

Delusion was a hell of a drug. I’d spent most of my career working with mollusks, crustaceans, and salmonids. I wasn’t thinking about the danger at all anymore. Instead, I was wondering what Piaoguo’s oceans smelled like and blinking back tears at the idea of getting on a boat again.

“I’ll do it.”

Imani held up her hand.

“There are some caveats.”

I nodded, bracing myself for the costs. I’d pay almost any price to put myself in danger for a chance to talk to a sentient pachydermous crustacean on their homeworld. Or were they crustaceous pachyderms? Nevermind the fact that said species orchestrated the abduction and sale of over a thousand humans, I was going to ask the real questions.

So, do your eyeballs hurt if I poke them? And how about that crest on your head… Do you think it’s hot? Do you even have the concept of hotness?

Imani cleared her throat, soldiering on while I stared with slightly manic intent at the tree behind her.

“Novak will need to memorize your scent.”

“Sure. Okay,”

I said immediately. Letting someone who thought I smelled get a whiff of my eau de river was awkward but didn’t hold a candle to the opportunity ahead of me.

“Are you seeing anyone?”

That pulled me out of my daydreams with a record-player scratch.

“Uh, no. Why?”

“Advenan bites are venomous but they leave a sort of marker. Novak could track you anywhere. Underwater, off-world, hopping from ship to ship. Anywhere, Charlie.”

She creased her brow, squeezing my shoulder.

“Vin said Novak won’t bring it up, but that you should know it’s on the table. We want you to come home safe.”

Venom. Generally speaking, that wasn’t a good thing to inject into your body. Neurotoxins, hemotoxins, cytotoxins… I could accept sniffing, giving him my clothes, or even bottling my pee and sweat if I needed to, but this gave me pause.

“I don’t know enough about advenans to say if I’m okay with that,”

I admitted hesitantly.

“What’s their venom used for?”

“Sex.”

My vision shook, pulse skyrocketing into my ears.

“You want me to—”

Imani cut off my words just as our holotabs began to vibrate and glow. She grabbed my arm in a rush as my stomach flipped and my ears burned.

“Yes. Don’t mention any of this anywhere to anyone. Don’t write it down, don’t do a search. No records,”

she blurted in a rush.

I didn’t get the chance to process her words as my eyes, tongue, and vocal cords spasmed and our bionics restarted. My fingers and throat twitched, my tongue rolled over itself, and my eyes reflexively dilated and contracted until I staggered sideways into a fern.

“Ach, that was awful,”

I said, stretching my jaw, a flash of heat springing back into my belly.

“Vin’s did the same thing yesterday,”

she said, rubbing her thumb with a grimace.

“Seems that some of our bionics need serviced. Maybe it’s an update.”

“Maybe,”

I agreed, following her lead.

“Talk to the bogs after you’re done at the clinic. I’m sure they’ll have a solution.”

“Good idea.”

Imani and I stared at each other, clueless how to go from there.

I exhaled, staring down at our boots with a somber frown. My mind was a whirlwind. How had a lazy day in the clinic become something so absurd? This wasn’t the sort of thing that happened to regular people.

But extraordinary circumstances…

If carving out a new life on an alien moon under galactic political pressure didn’t count as extraordinary, what did? The true weight of our position in the universe rested on my shoulders as much as Olivia Atarian or Imani Renatex, didn’t it?

I cleared my throat.

“So anyway, I’m trying to predict when this fish has its spawning season. If they’re anything like Earth, it should be soon,”

I sighed as if we’d been in the middle of a conversation.

“It could be as early as tonight.”

“So you’re going to camp down by the river?”

“Yeah…”

I said, still thinking hard about what I was signing up for and how far I was willing to go.

“I’ll be up all night.”

Imani nodded seriously, giving my shoulder another encouraging squeeze.

“We’re stretched pretty thin, but I’ll send someone your way.”