Chapter Ten
Maxim
A warrior had just died before us all. During the celebration meal with the Prime in attendance. It didn’t bode well for the Colony, and especially Base 3. But that was all secondary to my mate. I worried for her most of all. Had she seen someone die before? Everyone in the room, aside from Lady Jessica, had fought the Hive, been captured and tortured. They knew what it was like to endure, to face death and choose. Cling to life, fight and claw back from the brink, or turn away and allow death to take you. From my own personal hell at the hands of the Hive, I had often wondered if I’d made the right choice. Before Rachel, I sometimes imagined death to be a better choice than survival.
For up until a few days ago when I was matched to Rachel, that was all I’d been doing. Surviving.
Just as Prime Nial had said before all fucking hell broke loose, it was time to live.
But now, fuck. Now our mate had witnessed the cruel death of one of her own. She was in my arms, stiff and unyielding. She wouldn’t give over to my embrace, to the protective shield of my arms. My body couldn’t shelter nor soothe her. She didn’t allow me to comfort her, or shelter her from what happened. No, she fought to be released, to return to Captain Brooks’ side.
My mate was a warrior in her own way. Perhaps she did not carry a weapon, but her mind was sharp as a blade, and I could feel her emotions clearly through the collar. She was not afraid. She was angry. Determined. Stubborn. And so damn beautiful, her fierce resolve only made me want her more.
“It was Quell. Without doubt. Clearly, he was weak,” Doctor Surnen’s voice was filled with disgust and Rachel stiffened at his tone. Her contempt for the doctor blasted me through the collar like poison in my mind. Obviously, the doctor had not made a good first impression. And my mate had neither forgiven nor forgotten their first encounter.
Rachel pushed out of my hold and spun on her heel, her dress swirling around her. “I have no idea what the hell this Quell is, but he wasn’t weak. He was a SEAL, Doctor. Have some respect.” Her words were clipped and full of disdain.
I didn’t like Doctor Surnen, never had, but he knew what he was doing. He was brilliant, and had saved more than one warrior’s life since I’d known him. Many citizens of the Colony arrived immediately after their rescue from Hive captivity, broken and barely recognizable. The doctor always managed to bring them back. Always. He saved what no one else thought could be saved. For that, if nothing else, he’d earned my respect.
“My lady.” Doctor Surnen lifted his head to look at my mate. “I meant no offense to you. Quell is a chemical substance well known on the Colony. It alters the chemicals in the brain to make a user feel happy, to soften the agony of their new life. The Hive Integration Units adapt the biosynthetics of our systems to manufacture and release trace amounts. When we are cut off from the Hive frequencies, those command functions are lost and the cyborg cells stop manufacturing the drug. Many can’t adapt. They become dependent.”
“So it’s a drug? Is it legal here?”
“No.” I answered before the doctor could upset her further. “The Hive uses it to speed up the metabolism and weaken the minds of their captives during the integration process. After that, it’s kept at a constant level in our bloodstreams to weaken our minds and make sure we are—biddable.”
She looked down at the captain, her eyes narrowed with thought. “So, it’s a mind-altering high, like Ecstasy back home. Makes you feel happy? Content?”
The doctor raised a brow. “I am not familiar with the term ecstasy outside of a sexual context. But, Quell is often misused by our warriors trying to cope with the dark reality of their new status.”
“Status?” Rachel stepped closer to the doctor, standing over him like a shadow.
“As less. Contaminated. Outcasts.” The doctor ignored my mate, waving the ReGen wand over Captain Brooks’ corpse from head to toe. I didn’t like the way he worded that. The warriors present did not need to hear such dark words from our healer. Our cyborg implants were a cruel reminder of how we’d fought and survived.
“You’re an asshole.” Queen Deston pushed to the front to stand next to my mate and the two women shared a look I had no hope of deciphering without the connection I shared with Rachel. Agreement. Accord. Friendship. “And Rachel is right. If he was a SEAL, he was tough. I don’t believe he would rip his shirt off at dinner, challenge us like that, and then curl into a ball and drop dead from a drug overdose. No way.”
Rachel nodded. “I want to run some tests.”
The Earth women were not happy about what had happened to one of their own.
Queen Deston tilted her head as Ander and Prime Nial flanked her, two of the scariest bastards I’d ever had the pleasure to meet. The Queen lifted her hand to Rachel’s shoulder. “Okay, Miss PhD in BioChem. Figure out what the hell really happened. He’s a veteran. He’s ours. I want answers, because this is bullshit.”
He’s a veteran. He’s ours.
The words silenced the entire room as every warrior present absorbed the two women’s reactions. We’d all been labeled outcasts. Less. But veteran was a term of respect offered by our Queen. We’d protected our people and survived the worst hell imaginable. Her acceptance and support was a balm, but it also hurt, like ripping the edges of a freshly healed wound. But it was a pain I welcomed.
“There is no doubt some on the Colony abuse Quell, but not everyone,” I countered.
Doctor Surnen rose to his feet and acquiesced with a nod. “I do not mean to offend, Lady Rone, but based on these test results, Captain Brooks was one of them.”
Rachel looked down at the captain, still on the floor. “I just spoke to him not long ago. He submitted to the brides testing protocol yesterday, seemed eager to be matched. A warrior drowning himself in illegal drugs to ease his agony, wouldn’t have gotten tested,” she countered. Yes, she’d picked up on the doctor’s ill-chosen word.
“You are new to the Colony and do not know the mental anguish we face,” the doctor countered. “You saw how upset he was by having the Hive integrations.”
“That is true,” Rachel replied, clearly thinking of the man stripping off his shirt during a dinner with the Prime. Would that have been appropriate behavior at an Earth function? “But I know Earth men. And I know human physiology and how our bodies react to drugs. That was my job.”
“Yes, and you poisoned and killed hundreds of people.”
I snarled, taking a step toward the doctor, Ryston beside me.