In a cell by the tertiary lab.
Jak’ri’s hands tightened on hers as relief swept across his handsome features.
What happened after I lost consciousness? Ziv’ri asked.
Jak’ri winked. Ava and I escaped on your hovercycle while Saekro probed your butt. We are now on our way to Promeii 7.
Drek you, Ziv’ri responded with a laugh.
Ava laughed, too, glad to hear the brothers bantering again. They moved me to your cell, Ziv’ri.
Jak’ri scowled. And initiated a decontamination without warning her first.
Ziv’ri loosed a string of words her translator chip refused to define.
Ava smiled. One of these days you’re going to have to tell me what some of those mean. My translator is apparently too shocked or offended to do it.
The brothers laughed.
And her nerves calmed. For now at least, the three of them were still okay.
It was a sentiment she would soon come to question.
The next day Ava woke to silence from Ziv’ri. She thought at first he was simply sleeping. When she sought his mind, however, she encountered no dreams.
She encountered nothing at all.
“Perhaps they’re performing one of their surgeries on him and have rendered him unconscious,” Jak’ri suggested with a puckered brow.
But she encountered the same silence the next day. And the next. And the one after that until a week had come and gone.
Saekro and Kunya remained notably absent. The only Gathendiens Ava and Jak’ri saw were the jerks who threw canteens and nutrient cubes at them.
What had happened? Where were they? In the tertiary lab with Ziv’ri?
What had they done to him?
For a moment, she wondered if the Gathendiens had guessed that she, too, was telepathic and dosed her with nahalae so she could no longer communicate with the brothers mentally, but Jak’ri’s thoughts still came clearly to her. So whatever had happened had taken place on Ziv’ri’s end.
The possibilities terrified her.
Can you still hear me? Jak’ri asked. He had done so several times a day ever since Ziv’ri had gone silent.
Yes.
He nodded, face grim as he dropped his gaze to the floor. Try him again, please?
Heart breaking, she called, Ziv’ri? Can you hear me?
Quiet settled upon them.
Ziv’ri? she tried again. Please answer. If you do, I promise I’ll make Jak’ri give you your hovercycle back.
Jak’ri nodded, face grim. I will. If you answer, you can have your precious hovercycle back and I’ll buy you a new hoverboard. Just let us know you still live, brother.
Nothing.
Ava fought tears. Please, Ziv’ri. It’s been days since we’ve heard from you. We’re worried about you. Are you okay?
Minutes ticked past.
Sighing, Jak’ri rubbed his eyes. I don’t know what to do. He would answer us if he could.
Ava nodded helplessly. Reaching through the bars, she clasped Jak’ri’s hand and held it while he eyed their cells with mounting anger and frustration.
The door to the lab slid up.
Saekro and Kunya, entered.
Mocna, the guard from the tertiary lab, followed with two others she didn’t recognize.
Ava surreptitiously withdrew her hand, thinking it best to hide the affection she and Jak’ri shared.
Barely looking up from the data pad he held, Saekro motioned to Ava. “Bring me the female.”
Jak’ri stiffened and started to rise, but Ava caught his eye and shook her head.
Fighting would gain him nothing but pain.
At least for now.
Nerves jangling, Ava stood up and eyed Mocna warily as he waved his wrist over the sensor to unlock the gate.
Though she thought apparent capitulation might save her some pain, her feet nevertheless refused to carry her forward. She was too worried about what they intended to do with her.
Would they make her disappear the way they had Ziv’ri?
Jak’ri leapt to his feet, alarm crossing his handsome features.
And she swore inwardly. She must have inadvertently broadcast her thoughts again.
Mocna reached in, grabbed her arm, and yanked her forward.
“Get on the table,” Saekro ordered.
Kunya reached for the shock wand and held it up, the threat evident.
And yet she still balked. “What are you going to do to me?”
Saekro set his tablet aside and drew a hover tray covered with surgical instruments closer. “We need more samples.”
Her stomach clenched.
Saekro arched a hairless reptilian brow. “Cooperate and we’ll sedate you so you will feel no pain.”
Until she woke.
Do it, Jak’ri urged her. Let them sedate you.
Recalling the pain she’d experienced when they took the other samples—agony so excruciating it had driven her into unconsciousness—she nodded and climbed onto the table. Cold manacles instantly clamped around her wrists and ankles.
She glanced at Jak’ri from the corner of her eye. Would you watch and let me know what they—
Saekro pressed an autoinjector to her neck.
Ava jumped as she felt a pinprick.
Then darkness claimed her.
Jak’ri couldn’t sleep. He hadn’t seen Ziv’ri in over a week. And whatever sedative the Gathendiens had given Ava had sunk her into unconsciousness for an entire day.
At least he hoped it was the sedative. He had watched the surgery carefully, noting every sample they took and committing to memory the organ names they put on the labels. It sounded like Earthlings had the same organs Purvelis did except for the gills. So he could guess which ones the Gathendiens might hope would fail when she fell ill with whatever virus they manufactured.
This time, they injected her with what appeared to be a silna afterward. They must want her to heal faster so they can begin testing their carefully engineered contagions.
He glanced through the bars.
Ava lay motionless where they’d left her in the center of Ziv’ri’s cell. The marks left by the removal of what she called freckles did seem to be healing swiftly. But what if there had been something else mixed in with the silna?
She stirred suddenly, then groaned. Brows drawing down, she opened her eyes and squinted up at the ceiling.
“Ava?”
Turning her head, she looked over at him. “Are we alone?”
“Yes.”
“I swear I’m going to kill those bastards.”
He nodded, hating the distance and the bars that separated them.
Her movements sluggish, she rolled onto her side. The effort it took for her to rise to her feet and shuffle over to him scared the srul out of him.
Jak’ri stood and waited impatiently for her to reach him. Once she did, he reached through the bars and helped her sit on the pallet just on the other side.
Sighing, she pulled her legs up until her knees nearly touched her chest and slumped against the bars.
Jak’ri sat close and curled an arm around her. “How’s the pain?”
“Not as bad as last time.”
“They appeared to give you a silna to accelerate the healing and ease the pain.”
Bitterness filled her pretty features. “Gee, how thoughtful of them.”
Jak’ri could think of no responses to that.
She studied him through bleary brown eyes. “Any sign of Ziv’ri?”