Page 19 of I Married Amreth

I waved a dismissive hand. “The Prime Directive has already been violated where they are concerned. Following this incident, we are compelled to do regular checkups with them.”

“The three of us know that. Buttheydon’t. And even if we tell them that we will come back to make sure everything is still fine, they have no reason to trust us.”

“I hear what you’re saying, but I’m convinced they will want us gone so that they can forget we ever existed. Time will tell. For now, we need to get back to work. I would appreciate it if you both could update me as to what you have discovered so far.”

And with this, we began our race against the clock.

Chapter 6

Amreth

After eighteen hours traveling to the edge of our sector of the galaxy, and four days after Ciara’s abduction, I finally began my descent into Kestria’s atmosphere. Despite the unofficial mandate given to me by the Enforcers, the deep-rooted Obosian side of me that demanded I abide by the laws still twitched about violating the Prime Directive. In truth, I expected to borderline feel physically ill at that prospect. But the need to rescue my mate—a woman I had never even met—superseded everything else.

My heart soared when only minutes after I pierced through the atmosphere, my tracker went off, indicating it was finally picking up the signal from Ciara’s implant. Two additional signals confirmed that Mehreen and Ernst were also with her. That was a major relief. Had they been split up, it might have significantly complicated any rescue effort.

To my surprise, the signal didn’t emanate anywhere near the Sangoth villages, but on the other side of the mountain range where they dwelled. It was in the valley, at a nearly two-hourflight from there. Although confused by this, it also brought me some measure of relief. The Sangoths dwelled in the frozen peaks of the mountains. Without proper winter equipment, humans would struggle in those frozen temperatures.

The whole journey here, I dug up everything I could about my Ciara. All that I read further fueled the pride I felt knowing that she was mine. Beyond her stellar record and flawless background check, she had been a prodigy in school, obtaining her first doctorate at the age of twenty-three. She received countless prizes and awards over the years, many of which opened the type of doors people would beg to have access to.

Despite the numerous fancy appointment offers she received, Ciara declined them all to pursue selfless missions on primitive planets in dire need. She also focused on research that could have a tremendous impact on the medical world, but that wouldn’t give her the type of glamour and exposure that many of her colleagues sought, like Elias Jacobs.

But will she want to settle on Molvi?

That question plagued me relentlessly. Obviously, as the Warden of my Sector, I couldn’t leave. Sectors actually belonged to a bloodline. My family had managed ours for many generations. It was a tremendous honor to be the Warrior chosen to take over that responsibility. For all its challenges, I loved what I did. Even now, I felt guilty for being absent and unloading my duties onto my best friend Kronos, and my cousin Silas.

It shamed me all the more that Kronos already had his hands full taking care of his own Sector on top of preparing for the arrival of his first child. I could only hope that we would be able to swiftly resolve the issues here. At least, I took comfort in the fact that I had kept my Sector in good order, and unless something totally unexpected derailed things, handling my prisoners in my absence shouldn’t be too heavy a burden.

As I flew over the dense forest framed by a wide river, I absent-mindedly scanned for the local wildlife. While most of them seemed fairly small, a few larger ones traveling at high speed indicated some areas might not be safe to wander. Those creatures definitely looked like vicious predators.

My confusion steadily grew as I closed in on the location of the implants. They clearly emanated from a sprawling village up ahead. Although of pleasant appearance and sturdy construction, it was undeniably primitive. Beyond the fact that they clearly had not achieved space travel, I doubted they even possessed electricity.

On my journey here, I heavily speculated as to what could be going on. My main theory had been that an advanced species secretly established a base here, and that they abducted these scientists to complete the project they illegally began with Jacobs.

But this definitely was not it.

I flew over the village in stealth mode to get a first view of the lay of the land. The incredibly large number of males to the much lower ratio of females disturbed me. The drastically low number of younglings raised even more flags. On my way here, I had not detected any of them traipsing in the surrounding wilderness, which might have explained such an imbalance had they been out on a field trip or on the hunt.

That everyone remained at the village—at least in appearance—also seemed odd. About thirty males and a handful of females labored outside the main gates of the village, plowing the fields that spread on both sides of the main road to the entrance. I shifted my vision to glance at their souls. To my relief, they had the overall peaceful shades of common, decent folks. None of them displayed the orange or reddish hue of evil or ill intentions.

But what does evil look like for them?

Over the years, I encountered some rare species who would never qualify to join the United Planets Organization. Their moral values clashed too radically with ours. Things we would deem unconscionable and atrocious were considered normal and as part of the survival of the fittest. They didn’t commit those acts out of cruelty. Our shock and outrage genuinely confused them. How did you prosecute people who saw the world through completely different lenses from your own?

I zoomed in on the males outside to get a better look at them. Their simian appearance threw me for a loop. The bioscan confirmed that there were no records of such a species in our database.

“What in Tharmok’s name is going on?” I whispered to myself.

The scan indicated a single high-tech building, which turned out to be a missing deployable laboratory of the Interstellar Doctors Organization. How in the world had such a primitive species gotten their hands on it? Why did they have those three scientists working inside it? The thought that Sectarian invaders were using this village as a staging area wouldn’t go away. And yet, I didn’t detect any cerebral implant or control collars that might indicate that this simian species had been enslaved to the service of powerful off-worlders.

After a brief hesitation, I circled back to the inner courtyard where the lab was located. I proceeded to another scan to confirm the absence of any kind of technology that could detect the signal I was preparing to send to the three doctors’ implants. The organic device was designed in a way that it would fool most scanners into believing it was merely a mole on the person’s skin.

Once signaled, the host would feel a small pulsation indicating we were attempting to contact them. Based on protocols, if the target was able to move around, they wereexpected to go out in the open to allow facial recognition. If they couldn’t come outside, they had to provide one of four potential responses.

The first indicated that they could not come outside, which generally meant that they were physically restrained, be it by being locked in a space or shackled. The second expressed that they would need a bit of time before they could come out. In that case, they would attempt to give a time range for the wait. The third signal informed us that they were injured and therefore either unable to come out or in need of immediate assistance. The last signal indicated danger requiring us to leave at once before we got caught or attacked.

The target could respond with a mixture of all of the above. The challenge was that it required them to apply pressure on the subdermal implant in a specific pattern. If they were shackled or injured, it made that task nearly impossible.

My heart leapt when the doors of the lab opened less than a minute later. I held my breath and zoomed the camera as three humans exited the building. Tharmok’s teeth! My mate was even more gorgeous in person!

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