Page 2 of Possessed By the Leonid King

“Humans are so...furless. And weak. They’re barely sentient. No Leonid in his right mind would want to mate with one.”

“The chromosome modification would allow the Leonid genes to be dominant. Yes, the child would have some human characteristics, but they could be bred out in a few generations.”

“No.”

“A lighter coating of fur. No tail perhaps. Poor night vision. You know our evolutionary matrix crossed with a sapien at some point or else—”

“I said no, Marcus.”

Marcus sighed. “Sir, I didn’t want to bring this up, but this bulletin arrived from the Department of Health’s senior officer at Serval-Five.”

Ru snatched the screen Marcus was holding out.

“‘Possible Queen Fever mutation linked to deaths aboard a Sirius Federation pleasure ship.’ Bastet’s whiskers!” Ru pushed the device back into Marcus’ paws. “It’s jumping species?”

Marcus made a mewing noise in his throat. “It could be. They’ll know soon. They’ll know how to treat it, too.”

“But how could this happen now? It’s been six... Oh.” Rupex didn’t finish his sentence. When Queen Fever first struck in the Felix Orbus Galaxy, interplanetary and intergalactic trade and travel had been halted in nearly all cases. It had opened up slowly this past year, now that the fever was almost eradicated and vaccinations were widespread.

The Serval planets were closest to the Sirius Federation.

He could add two and two together to create a very grim picture.

Marcus injected a note of hope. “Our vaccine will probably work on most mammalian peoples.” He waited for a moment, a hesitant smile coming over his face. “And because of the structure of Queen Fever, it’s not compatible with humans. Humans will be immune.”

Ru groaned. He didn’t like when Marcus was smug, but he might have earned the right this time.

Chapter Two

Layla paced. Boredom had finally latched onto her after ten days aboard the craft. At least she hoped it had only been ten days. Time seemed slippery in isolation. She was the only human on board, and she wasn’t a passenger. She was cargo. She’d been sold by her no-good-not-even-boyfriend. A one-night stand gone horribly wrong on Sapien-Three, and now she was being sold as permanent help—or worse—to someone in the Felix Orbus Galaxy.

She’d heard rumors that the Leonids ate humans like humans ate the unevolved cows and pigs. She also heard that Leonids were a proud race who despised humans. They didn’t want them around, so maybe they’d be just as happy to let her work off a passage back to Sapien-Three, where she would track down Paul Bermauger and ship him to the other end of the solar system.

“Miss Human?”

Miss Human. At least her captor was polite. And to give him credit, it wasn’t his fault that she was cargo. You could buy hired help legally anywhere in the galaxy, although the beings being bought were supposed to do the negotiating and bartering themselves, like a modern form of indentured servitude.

“Yes, Mr. Lion?”

“Mr. Leonid, please. Miss Human, you are being taken to a human clearinghouse on Lynx-Nineteen. Was that your intention?”

“No. I was hoping for something on Sapien-Three.” She was hoping for anything, anywhere, honestly. A human without an elevated degree or a family had pretty crummy prospects. “Actually, I was hoping not to be on this ship at all, at least not in the cargo bay!”

The old lion-dude crept forward. She could see him now. She usually only heard his voice on the intercom making sure the service droids had delivered adequate food and water. Her “cell” was the size of four bunks pressed together and twice as wide. It had a bed and a minuscule shower/waste removal unit, a sink, and a media viewer. Of course, all the shows were from the Felix Orbus Production company, but still... She was getting into shows like Pride to Pride and Cubs Say the Strangest Things.

She’d seen pictures of Leonids back on Sapien-Three, her home planet. They were huge, usually about seven-feet tall with lashing tails and manes the size of a walk-in closet. This guy reminded her of her hopeless fourth-grade math teacher, who had finally given up on teaching and let them play games on their comms all year. He had the same air of wizened exhaustion to him, even if he did tower over her through the partition.

“Could you clarify, Miss Human?”

“Layla. Miss Layla, Mr. Leonid. I said I’m not supposed to be in your cargo bay.”

“Why not? That is the usual way humans travel aboard off-world ships on long journeys when they haven’t paid a passenger fare. If you only pay cargo rates, this is what you get. You have adequate space to sleep and eat.”

“Yeah, but I’m not supposed to be cargo! I wasn’t even planning to go off-world!”

The shaggy gray brows shot up and got lost in wispy gray fur. “You didn’t negotiate your own contract?”

“No. I’m trafficked. I told you that.”

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