Page 11 of I Married Amreth

“All the guards were Obosians. Every single one of them reported that they sustained some sort of psychic attack that completely messed with their heads and even their ability to fly,” Maeve replied. “The enemies that they could see wore some sort of holographic disguise that made them look blurry and disjointed. It was impossible to say what they were except that they seemed humanoid. If not for Kayog, they wouldn’t have been able to fight back at all.”

“Kayog? What did he do?” I asked, taken aback.

“He is an Edal. It grants him a broad range of unique powers that other members of his species do not have. His ability to recognize soulmates is merely the one he makes public. There’s more to the Temern than meets the eye,” she added in a mysterious tone. “He can disrupt psychic attacks, which allowed the guards to resume pushing back the enemies. But theirtechnology was far too powerful, and I suspect it involved more than that. We honestly have no idea what we were dealing with.”

“Are we talking about a potential invasion?” I asked, my mind reeling from these revelations.

Relief flooded through me when Maeve shook her head with conviction. “This was targeted. They wanted something, although we believed it was someone.”

“Ciara?” I asked with confusion.

She shook her head again. “We believe they were after Elias Jacobs.”

“Why?” I asked, the suspicions that had taken root while talking to Kayog resurfacing.

“We’re not sure. He claims he doesn’t know either, but he lies. His early escape seems a little too convenient. He suspected an attack was imminent and planned accordingly. Rest assured that we are investigating.”

“But why take Ciara and the other two doctors? What could they possibly have that the kidnappers might want?” I insisted.

“That is the main question. Ciara is an epidemiologist. Mehreen is an immunologist, and Ernst is a molecular biologist,” she said pensively. “The three of them together is an ideal team to investigate an epidemic.”

“You think they’re sick? Or are they trying to develop some sort of biological warfare?” I asked, my sense of unease cranking up another notch.

“We’re leaning towards the first hypothesis,” Maeve replied. “Their attack was surgical. All the injuries that the passengers sustained came from their own panic, none from the actions of the kidnappers. Like with the Darwandir female that fell with your mate, the attackers protected all the people who fell or would have sustained grievous injuries. Whatever they want, we don’t think they’re evil. But their technology makes them an undeniable threat that we need to assess.”

“Be that as it may, they still kidnapped three people after attacking a vessel that caused injuries, despite their best effort to limit them. If they only needed help, they could have asked. Why this? Why come from the Eastern Quadrant for this? Where have they taken them?”

“Truth be told, we’re beginning to suspect the kidnappers might have been hired hands for a third party,” Maeve said carefully. “Like I mentioned earlier, we lost Ciara’s signal at the edge of the Dead Zone. But after the ship dropped the nine people they released, it left our Quadrant from a different direction. That vessel is back in the Eastern Quadrant, but Ciara’s implant never left the Dead Zone.”

“What’s over there?” I asked, baffled.

“Just a handful of extremely primitive planets under the strictest Prime Directive guidelines. The only species over there with whom strictly controlled interactions are allowed are the Sangoths. They possessed a certain level of technology, and we interact with them to a comparable extent as we do with the Ordosians.”

“You think they have her?”

“It’s a long shot and pure speculation,” she admitted with an apologetic look. “The Sangoths do not have the capacity for interstellar travel. We have to go to them. But they have ways of contacting us through very slow relays.”

“Even assuming some Sectarian came to our Quadrant to help them out, why wouldn’t they simply request our doctors if we already have a relationship with them?” I challenged.

“I don’t know, Amreth. But maybe it is because the trust was breached. The serum that made Elias famous was derived from a random event that occurred on Kestria, the Sangoth homeworld.”

“Why in Tharmok’s name didn’t you mention that earlier?!” I exclaimed. “That’s the obvious connection!”

“Maybe, but maybe not. We have to handle this whole thing extremely carefully. If Jacobs wronged them somehow, tipping our hand too early might jeopardize the welfare of the prisoners. There is also the matter of the extremely strict restrictions to go onto that planet. Even the peacekeepers will not be allowed to land without strong enough probable cause.”

“You have the three doctors’ implants!” I said in an evident tone.

“Yes, but the Peacekeepers do not have powerful enough technology to track them without entering Kestria’s atmosphere, which they can’t do without cause.”

“Then give them the damn technology!”

“We can’t. It is too powerful and could be abused in the wrong hands. That’s why the Enforcers strictly control who has access to it.”

“So we’re supposed to sit back and do nothing?” I exclaimed, anger seeping into my voice.

“No, Amreth. I’m merely explaining that the Enforcers are tied up elsewhere. And the Peacekeepers do not have the necessary tools to enter Kestria without cause. But if a civilian ship going through that region happened to have an unexpected malfunction, nobody could fault them for making an emergency landing.”

I gaped at her. She smiled shamelessly.

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