Page 16 of Redeeming Captivity (Human Pets of Talin #7)
Chapter 16
Lena
On the walk back to the comms building, something caught Lena’s attention. Stopping, she stepped closer to a building almost entirely untouched by the destruction around them. A few of the buildings that must’ve been on the edge of the town looked old and uncared for but not destroyed at all.
She recognized the Ossiso symbol on the door and stopped. She’d learned a few of their symbols when Jafinium would take her with him on every visit to the town.
“Lena?”
“Cleansing units,” she said simply and diverted to the door of the building. Without power it wouldn’t open, but Tarquin simply kicked it once to make a gap then pushed it the rest of the way open with his hand.
Lena gave him a thankful smile then stepped in, Tarquin right behind her. Ossiso didn’t groom often so they didn’t bother with cleansing units in all living quarters. They also liked to bathe in special infrared light after cleansing, so the inside of this building had cleansing units lined up on one side and sunning booths on the other.
Living with Tarquin reminded Lena how nice it was to bathe regularly. The sonic bathing units weren’t as nice as the ones that used water, but it was better than living with skin covered in dust and dried sweat.
“You wish to use one of these units?” Tarquin asked.
Lena nodded but then shrugged. Unlike the comms buildings that were considered important enough to have a secondary backup power source, this place was completely without power.
“I saw a powerbox in the rubble next to the comms building,” Tarquin said. “It should power a single unit long enough for you to use it.”
She looked up at him, excited. “Yes, please!”
He leaned over to brush his lips against her forehead with a purr. “I’m happy to do that for you.”
They rushed back to the comms building. It didn’t take long for Tarquin to find the powerbox and declare it still functioning. Tarquin hooked it up and the cleansing unit blinked and the door slid open.
Lena let out an excited laugh and reached down to unlatch her boots.
“Wait for a moment, let me clear a spot for you,” Tarquin said, urging her away from the unit. Using a flexible black rectangle of something leaning against a nearby wall, he swept away the dirt and dust that’d gathered on the floor. Then he grabbed another rectangle and set it down to give her a clean place to stand.
“Sweet,” she murmured.
“It’s much less than what you deserve,” he answered with a purr.
Unlatching her boots, she realized she hadn’t grabbed any clean clothes. She started to relatch them when Tarquin made the wheels-bumping-over-cobblestone sound of a questioning rumble.
She opened her coat and tugged at her soiled wrap with a wrinkled nose. “Dirty.”
Tarquin gestured to the unit. “You stay here and use the unit. I’ll be back with a clean wrap by the time you're done.”
He was gone before she could thank him.
She finished pulling off her boots, stripped, then stepped into the unit. It took a few wrong commands before she initiated the cleaning cycle. A light mist filled the small space. Lena closed her eyes and waited for the mist to finish coating her skin.
It didn’t take long before a buzzing sounded and then the sound got stronger, vibrating against her skin. The mist coating her skin foamed and dripped off. Air blew from the top for several submarks. Then air pushed up from her feet. By the time that was done she was dry but didn’t feel completely clean.
After the unit chimed that it was done, she pressed for it to go again. After the second cycle she finally felt washed. It wasn’t as nice as bathing in hot water, but it got her just as clean.
The door slid halfway open before the unit lost power and completely shut down. Lena stared at the door with wide eyes. She almost got trapped in here. Fear made her heartbeat kick up as she slipped out of the unit.
Suddenly feeling vulnerable, she looked around for fresh clothes, but noticed Tarquin hadn’t returned with a clean wrap. There was no one around, so she should be comfortable walking back to the comms room naked, but she couldn’t bring herself to do it.
As much as she didn’t want to, she pulled on her old wrap, shoved her feet in her boots, and donned her coat. Once she was fully dressed, her fear diminished.
Even if she’d gotten trapped in the unit, there was an unlatching mechanism that would’ve allowed her to open the door manually. The only question was whether she would have found it in the middle of a panic attack.
Shaking off the remaining unease, she reminded herself that Tarquin would never leave her. He probably got distracted by something on the console and she’d see him on her walk back.
She knew something was wrong the moment she stepped out of the building. Once outside she could hear triumphant rattles coming from several Talins at once. A new fear washed over her as she ducked behind a pile of rubble. Running bent over, she made her way closer to the comms building. When she got close enough to hear someone talking, she stopped. Laying down on a pile of rubble she crawled up until she could peek over the top.
“I should get a commendation for this,” one Talin said. Three of them were standing shoulder to shoulder with their backs to her and looking off into the distance.
“We all should,” another one said.
“I was the one who noticed the collapse,” the third said, sounding sullen. “If Standing General Jafinium is going to give anyone a commendation, it should be me.”
The collapse gave them away! They shouldn’t have noticed something so trivial on a planet where rockslides happened on a daily basis. The only explanation was they were paying closer attention because they were looking for Tarquin. Now these males were here and she couldn’t see Tarquin anywhere.
“There it is,” one of the men said.
Another one sounded an irritated rattle. “It’s about time.”
She followed their line of sight to see a large, all-terrain ground transport making its way toward them. It was cresting a grouping of boulders before disappearing behind another pile of stones. It would arrive soon.
Even though she couldn’t see Tarquin, she noticed the comms building was listing to the side. Sliding back down the rubble pile, she ran around the males, ducking from rubble pile to boulder. She was panting by the time she got close enough to see through the missing wall of the comms building.
Tarquin was lying unconscious on the ground. He was breathing and she didn’t see any obvious wounds. The Talins had lots of weapons that could knock a person out without doing permanent damage. Hopefully that's what they did to Tarquin.
Judging by the mess on the inside of the building, he fought hard before they laid him out. A glance back at the males showed one of them had a bunch of broken quills and another was bleeding from an earhole. They probably thought it would be easy to apprehend Tarquin then resorted to a weapon when they realized none of them were a match for her Talin.
She tried to get closer. If she could drag him to…
“Do you think that human is around here somewhere?” one of them asked, making her freeze. They’d all moved closer to Tarquin and would see her if she tried anything.
“I’m sure she’s dead,” another one said. “Humans can’t survive outside for long. If she didn’t die in the winds then she probably died afterward of exposure.”
“We never found her body,” the third one said.
“We probably never will,” the first one declared with confidence. “Humans are so soft and vulnerable. Her body was probably torn apart and scattered across the planet. It’s a good thing we don’t have to worry about the Committee of Pet Welfare finding out, or Standing General Jafinium would have to deal with an investigation over her death.”
These Talin were dumb. Their stupidity took her breath away. If they simply looked around they’d have seen plenty of evidence that she’d been here. Talins didn’t sleep in nests. One of her wraps was tucked between two stones and fluttering slightly in the wind. And those were only the most obvious signs.
Despite their combined idiocy, she couldn’t see a way to get Tarquin out.
Feeling absolutely helpless, she watched the ground transport trundle up next to the comms building. It took all three of them to get Tarquin’s bulk into the back, and they weren’t gentle.
I’ll make all of you pay, she swore. And if Tarquin dies, I’ll destroy the whole damn empire!
Tarquin
Tarquin came awake in a rush. He was on his back and instinctively tried to roll onto his feet. He stopped when he couldn’t get his arms or legs to move freely.
“He’s awake!” someone shouted. He looked up to see two males standing on the other side of a closed cage door.
“What’s going on?” he said, looking down to see that they’d bound his ankles with flex-cuffs. No doubt his wrists were secured by the same means.
“You tried to assassinate Standing General Jafinium,” one of them said. “You’ll remain here until he decides what to do with you.”
Unlike when he got hit in the head during the windstorm, he clearly remembered what happened when he’d gone to fetch Lena’s wrap. Three soldiers appeared and they fought. He was winning until one of them pulled a pulse-thrower. One shot flung him off his feet, the second knocked him unconscious.
The fact that they had a pulse-thrower instead of deadlier weapons told him they had instructions to keep him alive. Being locked in what was clearly a room in Jafinium’s house indicated that not everyone on the base was part of his plot.
“If you think that’s true, then report it to my superior,” Tarquin demanded. “Contact Commandant Holian and the head of Inspections and Reporting. Tell them about these accusations.”
“We don’t listen to men like you,” one of them sneered, and both men turned and left.
It was clear these two men were loyal to Jafinium. There would be no convincing them that he was innocent or enlisting their aid in sending a message to anyone. What he really needed to know was if they’d found Lena.
He slumped against a wall, working hard to control his rage and fear.
If the ancestors blessed them, Lena would’ve waited for him at the cleansing unit. Even better if she’d heard the soldiers and hidden. She knew where and when the pickup was going to happen. She could make her way there alone. It would be treacherous, but she was strong.
She would be safe if they hadn’t captured her. The thought of her back in that little bare cell made him want to sound a mourning rumble.
“Did you escape or did you get caught out in the wind?”
Tarquin sat up to find Jafinium looking at him through the bars of his cell. “I got caught out in the wind.”
It suddenly struck him that he was in Lena’s old cage! They must not have found her. Jafinium's next question confirmed his suspicions.
“What happened to the human?”
“Dead,” Tarquin said succinctly. “She was struck and killed almost immediately.”
“Why were you outside?” Jafinium asked, obviously suspicious.
“She likes to walk and I didn’t mind indulging her,” Tarquin answered then turned the questions on Jafinium. “How dare you accuse me of attempted murder.”
“Attempted political assassination,” Jafinium countered with an amused rumble. “That sentence comes with a much worse punishment. Death by plate removal.”
“That was outlawed over a century ago,” Tarquin said.
“Yes, by a government willing to weaken our species,” Jafinium shot back. “When I rule the empire, we’ll return to our era of glory.”
Tarquin was genuinely confused. “When did the era end? We haven’t lost a war in a thousand years, we have the second most powerful military in the known universe, and we’re a rich, advanced species.”
“We should be more!” Jafinium said with a loud, challenging rattle that echoed down the hall. “The current monarch is soft and constantly bows to the Apogee Assembly. We need to go back to the times of Thorisium and Calisum! They were true leaders.”
“They were bloodthirsty warmongers,” Tarquin argued. “They were the reason the Apogee Assembly was first formed. They brought us to the brink of destruction with their endless wars. It was because of—”
Jafinium cut him off. “Lies! The histories are full of lies. We’re all fed the same drivel at the creshes. It’s time we remembered those monarchs for who they were: brilliant leaders. If Calisum hadn’t been removed from his throne, we might control the entire known universe! Don’t you understand?”
Jafinium was raving like someone who’d taken an overdose of olea, except this wasn’t chemically induced. This standing general truly believed what he was saying. He wanted the empire to return to the dark days when they lost over a third of their population in a series of unwise and poorly waged wars because the monarchs at the time had almost absolute control.
“I’ll conduct your trial and execution this evening,” Jafinium announced, his voice returning to a calmer tone. “I’m sorry you won’t live to see the empire under my command.”