Riley's Paradox, page 43
part #9 of Hearts of ICARUS Series
“Your Commanders are very wise,” Ba-Shin said, nodding slowly.
Garen’s eyes closed for a moment as he silently thanked the Katre-Laus’ intuition. “Rather than leave the Commanders in the dark after telling them you cannot be of aid, which I’m afraid would be wholly ill advised, we have a suggestion.”
“Suggestions are always welcome, High Prince,” Ba-Shin said hopefully.
“We have an alternate route for passing along information. One that utilizes a power bond, and which bypasses ears such as you spoke of.”
Ba-Shin considered his words carefully before smiling. “Very clever, High Prince. That will work perfectly.”
“Then we shall transmit the untruth, and proceed as agreed.”
“You may wish to include a warning, Highness. Glib is quite clever, and must not be underestimated. I would have described him as marginally less brutal than Weeble, but I’m afraid he is now, as you might say, backed into a corner.”
“Desperate enemies are always the most dangerous,” Garen said softly.
“Indeed they are, High Prince,” Ba-Shin agreed. “We will begin our journey immediately in order to arrive a bit earlier than your friends.”
“Happy Hunting, Ba-Shin.”
The Basulor Doftle smiled as she bowed one last time before the screen went dark.
Chapter 24
“Hello Riley,” Percy said as soon as she appeared on the floor in the corner.
“Hi Percy,” she said, opening her eyes and smiling at him. “How are you doing?”
“I’m better now that I can see and hear you,” he said with a brief purr. “I can’t feel your emotions though, which seems odd to me. How are you?”
Riley sat up while listening to Percy. “I’m all right but I’ll be a lot better once you guys get us out of here.” She frowned. “You seem tired.”
“I’m not tired, exactly,” Percy said, watching her stand. “It has been a long three months for all of us. We miss you, but soon we will be together and you will threaten to tie my tail in knots and try to convince me to eat vegetation and everything will be normal again.”
“That’s exactly right,” Riley said. “I’m looking forward to it.”
“As am I,” Percy said softly.
“Hello Jamila,” Win said when she finished speaking with Percy and turned to face them.
“Hi,” she said. “I’m so happy to see all of you again.”
“We’re happy to see you too,” West said. “But what are you hiding behind the darkness in your eyes?”
Riley crossed her arms tightly across her chest and approached them, but didn’t answer until Percy settled himself on Wilder’s shoulder. “You know that there are six women in each room, all unconscious.” They nodded, their expressions patient and solemn. “None of us have names here. Just numbers. So even though I see the charts for the five women I share a room with, I don’t know anything about them. But I still care about them. More than I realized, in fact.
“The youngest girl, she can’t be more than seventeen, I’m sure of it. She’s the first one I saw when I awoke as Bastet. When I awoke a while ago, her bed was gone, and when I went to the tank room before coming here, I saw that her tank was empty.”
Riley took a deep breath in an effort to push back the tears that threatened to clog her throat. “I don’t know for certain, but I think they kill the women when the fetus in their tank dies. Maybe I’m wrong, but from the way they talk about them…I just don’t know.”
“We know the answer if you want to hear it,” Wilder said. Win growled softly and Wilder turned to him, his eyes stern. “I will not lie to her, Brother. She is not a child, and she deserves to know the truth if she wants to hear it.” Wilder turned back to Riley. “On the other hand, if you don’t want to hear it, that’s fine as well. We’d rather not tell you because you’ve gone through so much already, but it’s up to you.”
“That’s okay, Wilder,” Riley said. “I think I already have my answer. I just hope that you catch those responsible for all of this.”
Wilder stepped a little closer to her, wishing he could wipe away the silvery tears rolling down her cheeks. “We intend to do exactly that, Qalbi. Now then, would you like some good news?”
“I would love some good news,” Riley said.
“First of all, we sent you a bond call earlier. Even though we’re still about four days away from you, we were able to follow our call along the bond directly to Rogan.”
Riley’s smile erased every trace of her earlier sadness. “That’s wonderful, and such an immense relief.”
“It is,” West said, grinning in response to Riley’s happiness. “We’re confident we’ll be able to pin point your precise location when we reach Rogan.”
“I’m so happy about this,” Riley said, clapping her hands together.
“There’s more good news,” Wilder said. “The reicere that Rose received was a forgery.”
“What?” Riley asked, her eyes widening.
“Our Princes tracked down your sister’s intended Rami. It turns out that a female Tech Specialist aboard their ship overheard them talking about Rose. She wrote and sent the document to Rose out of jealousy and spite.”
“How cruel,” Riley gasped. “You’re sure of this? Why would anyone do such a thing? Are they with you? Do they really want Rose? Why didn’t they tell her?”
West chuckled. “Slow down, love. We will answer your questions if you give us a chance.”
“Sorry,” Riley said sheepishly. “I’m just caught between angry, excited, happy, and worried.”
“That’s all right,” West said. “Your answers are, in order, as follows; Yes, we’re sure. She did it out of jealousy. No, they aren’t with us yet, but will be in a few hours, and yes, they want Rose very much. They didn’t tell her they identified her because she only has one year left at the academy and they wanted to let her graduate first.”
“It’s too bad jealousy isn’t a punishable offense but I hope they at least got the woman off their ship,” Riley said.
“Yes, she’s off their ship,” Win said. “In fact, she’s in a cell right now on Jasan.”
“A cell? She was arrested for being jealous?”
“No, and that’s kind of funny because Rose asked much the same thing. Jealousy isn’t illegal of course, but hacking into the ship’s mainframe, forging signatures, and using company funds to have that document delivered are illegal. Not to mention tampering with the ship’s security logs in order to delete the documents and receipts she generated.”
“If she deleted them,” Riley said slowly, then smiled. “They had a secret backup, didn’t they?”
“They did indeed.”
Riley nodded. “Good. I hope she pays for what she did to Rose.” She frowned. “If Rose asked the same question I did, then she knows about this. How did she take it?”
“She’s both relieved and worried. She did give permission for them to try soul-linking with her once we’ve got all of you safe.”
Riley thought about that for a minute. “Her injury is that serious?”
Win bit back a smile. It hadn’t taken her long to figure that out at all, though he wasn’t surprised. “The injury is very serious,” he said, his brief moment of humor gone. “There is no possibility that she can be healed, Riley. Not with a healing tank, or the Tigrens, or anyone else.”
“It must have been very difficult for her to give them permission for that when she’s never even met them, but I’m so glad she did,” Riley said. “And um, just in case you can’t wake me up from these drugs, you have my permission to do the same thing.”
“We do?” West asked, trying not to sound as surprised as he felt.
“Of course you do,” Riley said. She dropped her eyes and began to chew on her lip. “If you want to, of course.”
“We want to,” Wilder said. “In fact, we’ve been struggling with the question of how to ask you to let us do that. Thank you, Riley.”
Riley smiled, relieved, then she took a deep breath. “Can I ask you something?”
“Of course, love, you can ask us anything,” West answered.
“I know we don’t have time for lots of long explanations, but do you know why all of this is happening?”
“Yes, we do,” Wilder admitted.
“Please tell me,” Riley said, looking at each of them for a long moment. “I need to know. I don’t need all the gory details right now, but I need at least a few answers.”
“All right, but it’s not going to be easy to hear.”
“I know that much already,” she said with a trembling smile.
“Your youngest sister Rikki was abducted at the beginning of summer on Argon, along with the friend that she was staying with,” Wilder began. “They were both taken to a facility much like the one you are in now. They didn’t keep the young women in comas, though. They were each held in tiny cells, and they were told absolutely nothing. Rikki’s daughter was given to her to care for on the day she was removed from a tank like the ones you’ve seen. After a few months, Rikki managed to escape with Charley and they are now safe and sound on Jasan.”
As he spoke, Wilder had watched Riley’s reaction carefully. She’d paled dramatically, and had begun breathing more rapidly, but she quickly gained control of herself.
“I’m okay,” she said. “Please go on.”
Wilder nodded. “Before she escaped, Rikki was able to use her bearenca senses to eavesdrop on several meetings between the so-called doctors and scientists. She discovered that the Doftles do not reproduce as other species do. Instead, they must use tissue with specific genetic characteristics to clone new Doftles. The new Doftles are not born, nor are they ever children. They are cloned as full adults. It is the only method that works.
“We’ve learned how to kill Doftles in recent years, and between us and the Basulor, their numbers are dwindling fast. They’ve been trying to reproduce for many years now, but they’ve stepped up their attempts recently by offering lucrative contracts to a number of laboratories if they succeed in creating the genetic model required.”
“That’s why the Doftles have been kidnapping Klanaren females all this time,” Riley said.
“Yes,” Wilder said. “Until Rikki’s baby, Charley, no one had ever succeeded and, as I said, Rikki escaped with her daughter. By then, the Doftles had already decided to grab you and Rose in hopes that they could have the same success with each of you.”
“So all of these babies are intended to…do what? Provide tissue for them to clone more Doftles?”
“Yes,” Win said. “Out of all the attempts they’ve made, and are still making, only two infants have actually survived to be removed from the tank. The first was Charley. They took tissue from her and successfully created a small number of Doftles. Three or four I believe.
“The second is Layla, Rose’s baby. We believe that our daughter, Zia, will be the third baby.”
“I knew that there couldn’t be a good reason for what they’re doing here,” Riley swallowed, fighting sudden nausea. “I honestly couldn’t have imagined anything this horrific.” She drew in a deep breath and set her jaw. “They need to be stopped. No matter what.”
“They do,” Win agreed. “It’s our understanding that there’s only one Doftle left with the intelligence and the knowledge to even consider trying this. That’s Glib, right hand to Weeble before the Lobo sisters destroyed him. He’s the one behind the labs, the kidnappings, the experiments, all of this. If we can take him out of the equation, any remaining Doftles will scatter.”
“He’s going to be close to Rogan,” Riley said, relieved when her men didn’t try to coddle her, but nodded instead.
“We believe he will be very close, and hidden by Blind Sight. But don’t worry. We have a lot of help, a very good plan, and we have Blind Sight, too.”
Riley nodded. “Thank you for being so honest with me. That’s important to me, and I appreciate it. As much as I’d like to ask more questions on that subject, I know time is short. So would you mind if I changed the subject a little?”
“Of course not.”
“Do you know anything about Rikki’s baby? I’d like to have some idea what to expect.”
“We only met her once, during the meeting we had with Rikki, her Rami, and your parents.”
“You met her? And Rikki’s found her Rami?”
“Sorry, love, yes, we met her and yes, Rikki has found her intended Rami,” West replied. “They haven’t soul-linked yet since they only met a couple of weeks ago. They’ve just begun to live together as a family, though. While we were there we met Charley and had a chance to talk with her.”
“Talk with her?”
“She’s only five months old so she doesn’t actually talk yet,” Win said, “but she does a very good job of expressing herself with signs that Rikki taught her. Sometimes it takes Rikki a little while to understand her meaning, but they manage remarkably well.
“Charley is highly intelligent, already fluent in Standard and Greek, and is currently learning Ugaztun. She’s also very sweet, outgoing, and funny. She’s beautiful too, with white blond hair and big turquoise eyes like you and your sisters.”
“Do Rikki’s Rami accept her?”
“Absolutely,” West said, smiling. “They’ve claimed her as their own, and it’s obvious they love her, and she loves them. She has an amazing personality.”
“She sounds wonderful, and I can’t wait to meet her,” Riley said. “But I can tell there’s something you haven’t said yet.”
“True, but only because we hadn’t quite gotten there,” West said. “We certainly don’t intend to hide anything.”
“I know. But um, what is it?”
“Charley is shifter.”
“Shifter? Are you certain?”
“Yes, your parents told us. She shifts into a bearenca. A bearenca with blue fur.”
“Blue as in Doftle blue?”
“Yes,” Wilder said. “Not only is her fur blue, it’s as tough as a Doftle’s skin. It’s a result of the genetic mix they used. However, she is not Doftle. Our Princes have checked Charley and announced that she is Klanaren, and like all Klanaren daughters, she has destined Rami.”
“That’s a relief,” Riley said.
“It is. It’s our greatest hope that Zia will be born shifter, too.”
Riley’s eyes narrowed in thought. “If they aren’t shifters they can’t self-heal. If they can’t self-heal they won’t survive long enough to be born out of those tanks.”
“That’s right,” Win said.
“Does anyone know if Charley’s intelligence is also a product of the genetics they cooked up?”
“The Tigrens don’t think so.”
Riley suddenly looked worried. “What is it, Jamila?” Win asked.
“I’m not sure how to explain this but I know what Zia feels. And I can talk-no not talk. I can communicate with her. Sort of. Telepathically. I think.”
“You think?” Win asked.
Riley sighed heavily as she tried to think of the best way to explain. “I’m not sure if it’s telepathy or not. She reaches out to me and I can feel her emotions. She can also feel mine if I send them to her. I think. It’s difficult to explain.”
“What does she feel?” West asked.
“Lonely. Insecure. Cold.”
“Insecure?”
“From what I’ve seen through Bastet’s eyes, those tanks are fairly large in comparison to a true womb. Plus, a womb grows in tandem with the baby, so it’s a snug environment. She’s just kind of floating in this tank of fluid. It doesn’t feel right to her. And it’s too quiet. Much too quiet. That doesn’t feel right, either.
“I wish I could explain that help is on the way. I just don’t see how I can possibly get her to understand that since she doesn’t understand words. I tried to send soothing feelings to her, but I’ve found that she likes it best when I hum songs to her. In my mind, I mean, since I have no voice as Bastet. It does relax her, I know that much.”
Riley sighed and shook her head. “I know I haven’t explained this very well, but I don’t actually understand it myself. Is it intelligence, telepathy, empathy, none or all of the above?”
“I wish we knew,” Wilder said. “Whatever it is, it doesn’t sound like anything bad or harmful.”
“I think that what’s important right now is that you can soothe her,” West said. “That’s a gift all by itself.”
“Yes, that’s true.”
“Try to calm her when you can, and don’t worry about trying to find more information,” Wilder said. “We’ve got all we need now. And remember that we’re coming. It won’t be much longer.”
“I know you are, and I’ll do my best to keep her as calm as I can.”
“If you feel up to it, we’d like to try a couple of experiments while you’re here,” Wilder said.
“What kind of experiments?”
Wilder explained that Rose wanted to speak with her Rami, and the limitations of the máti. Then he told her how they hoped to get around those limitations.
“To help my sister speak with her Rami, absolutely,” Riley said eagerly. “Let’s do this.”
***
Next day, the Pharaoh
Wilder, Win, and West stood at the head of the long table in the war room of the Pharaoh and waited for the newcomers to settle down. The Tigrens, Lobos, and elder Gryphons were all well known to them. Princess Salene they’d met several times over the years, but her intended Rami, a younger Gryphon male-set who carried themselves like seasoned warriors, they knew by reputation only.
“Welcome everyone, and thank you for joining us,” Wilder began. “Before we get started on planning, I know that some of you have information to share.” He looked at Kyerion and dipped his head slightly. Kyerion nodded.
“We’ve brought two of the small tanks that were used in the Argon lab and studied them on our way here from Jasan,” he began. “We’ve designed a portable life support system that will allow us to move the tanks from one location to another. We need a day or two in the Pharaoh’s engineering lab to build one. Once we’ve completed and tested it, your engineers should be able to duplicate it. We want to at least try to save any fetuses that remain.”
