Page 21 of The Edge of Dawn

Finally, the human became aware of their presence.

Too late.

He raised her arms and slapped the human right over both ears—hard.

In all sentient species he’d encountered in the Universe, the structures of the inner ear were highly sensitive, responsible for both hearing and maintaining a sense of balance.

Easily disrupted.

Humans were no exception, it seemed.

Disoriented, the male lurched around, grunting and blabbering in his native language.

There was no time to waste. She wouldn’t be able to sustain this intensity for much longer.

He had to take the attacker down in one fell swoop.

A projectile weapon appeared in the man’s hand. With a deft sidestep, Dragek snatched the weapon and delivered a vicious, well-aimed kick to the back of the human’s knee.

His leg folded. He cried out in pain and fury.

Inside her mind, the human was paralyzed, terrified.

Let’s end this quickly.

And so he did, quickly checking over the projectile weapon before firing it into the human’s neck.

Pop.

A dart was released. Of course, it wasn’t a lethal energy bolt or a solid bullet. He’d known that from the look of the infernal thing. It was some sort of poison designed to incapacitate.

What have you done?

She hadn’t been able to figure that out yet? She was so naive, so unused to the harsh realities of the Universe outside this planet’s green-and-blue bubble. She wouldn’t be able to tell the difference between a weapon designed to kill and one designed merely to incapacitate.

He still had the other weapon, of course, the energy-gun that he’d made safe and tucked in the waistband of her pants.

Let’s be real here, human. Whatever I just shot into his body would have been circulating in your bloodstream right now if I hadn’t done anything. Does your concern for some hostile stranger override your own sense of self-preservation?

Of course not. She seemed offended. That was good. Better for her to be angry rather than afraid and in denial of reality. I just wasn’t sure what that thing was. Now I can see that he’s alive—still breathing.

Why do you care so much whether these people live or die? They’re out to harm you. He was genuinely curious. Her way of thinking—he couldn’t fathom it. If he weren’t feeling so benevolent toward her—and he didn’t really understand why he was like this, either—he would have just snapped their necks then and there.

She bristled under his control. These guys work for someone. They’re just following orders. They probably have families—mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers, wives, children. At the end of the day, somebody’s going to miss them. Besides, they weren’t out to kill me, so I don’t wish for them to die, either.

You have a strong sense of… justice. It took him a moment to find the right word. What did he know of justice, anyway? All he’d learned was discipline, consequences, and death. He’d been trained to take life under the orders of another. He’d never had the luxury of understanding what was right and wrong.

He’d existed in a void, deprived of his own free will.

What did it matter if he killed some clueless, insignificant human?

According to her, it mattered, apparently.

I just do what I feel is right… and I think accordingly. She radiated both relief and resignation as he made her take a step back from the unconscious human. As he did so, searing pain shot through her right foot.

For reasons he couldn’t explain, pain grounded him and gave him clarity. It distracted from the bleakness of his existence and made him feel a little less numb.

But now, when he was plugged into her brain and her nervous system…

---