“I have no honor.”
“Fuck that. Listen to me. Stop. Fighting.” I calmed my voice and my mind, tried to connect to Thomar and bring his aggression down about a thousand levels.
“I hear them, Varin. They are inside that one. That beast.” He snarled at Rezzer over my shoulder, but I didn’t dare turn around to see what the idiot Atlan was doing.
“We are on The Colony. He has integrations like we do. Trust me.”
“Lies.” The chaos in his head threatened to overwhelm my control as the months of torment and pain flooded both of our minds like acid, burning away all reason, all connection to who we’d once been. There was no anchor in his mind, only the storm.
I felt him slipping from me, knew there was nothing I could do to stop him.
“Get out! He’s losing control.” I shoved his shoulders, held him back for precious seconds. “Get out now if you want to live!”
The Atlan, Rezzer, looked bored. “I am not concerned about your Prillon.”
He was either an idiot or had more integrations and was much more powerful than I had first assumed.
The door slid open with a slight whooshing sound and two small children ran inside. They were squealing with laughter. Shocked, Thomar froze, and I dared looked back, over my shoulder. The children were, indeed, small, the tops of their heads barely reaching Rezzer’s knees. That didn’t stop them. They ran for him and jumped, one grabbing each leg.
“Papa! CJ took ball. Give it back.” The small boy glared at his sister, who held the ball in the tiny hand wrapped around Rezzer’s opposite thigh.
“Make ball. Essen. Duh.”
“Mom say no!” the boy argued.
“Duh. Duh. Duh.” The little girl, hair in a braid that ran down the back of her head and past her shoulders, chanted the offensive word at her brother. My NPU could not process the word, and I had no idea why it was considered offensive.
Nor did I know what an essen was.
Thomar stood frozen, equally confused, the sights and sounds of children something neither of us had heard in quite some time, since before we’d been taken by the Hive. Even on our battleship, we’d avoided the mated families’ section of the ship. Their reaction to Thomar’s presence was one we had learned to avoid.
Rezzer looked down at the two, who appeared to be twins, and scolded both. “CJ, give your brother back his ball. You know he can’t use the S-Gen machine yet.”
The little boy tilted his head back and forth, taunting his sister.
“No! RJ make ball. This one mine. He lose his.”
Rezzer sighed. Deeply. “RJ, is that true? Is that your sister’s ball?”
The little boy shrugged, and even I, who had very little experience with children, knew his sister spoke the truth.
“I will make you a new one later. You need to go find your mother.”
Both children clung tighter and giggled. “No. Papa! Papa! Papa!” They chanted, both of their little heads bobbing enthusiastically as they finally agreed on something.
Frozen, shocked at the appearance of children, real living, breathing children, I had forgotten the danger behind me.
“Children?” Thomar’s voice sounded astonished, and I hoped he would calm. Instead I felt the moment his mind went black with rage. “The Hive are processing children!” His bellow threatened to split my head in two.
“Get them out of here! Now!” I yelled at the Atlan, who had already taken a step back, the other Atlan stepping between me and Rezzer, who was carrying his startled children toward the door, both Atlans still in beast mode.
Why were they ignoring me? Why were they not panicked? Running for their lives? Were they idiots? Their lack of reaction made no sense. Thomar was dangerous. Deadly. A killer.
“Enough!” A Prillon wearing med-center green walked into the transport room and pointed an odd device in our direction. “I am Dr. Surnen.”
I felt my shoulders drop in relief. Thank the gods. “Can you help us?”
“I will try.” With that, he fired the strange device at Thomar, who slumped, unconscious, to the floor.