Page 25 of I Married Amreth

As soon as I sat, I suddenly remembered I hadn’t offered him anything to drink or eat.

“No, Ciara. I’m fine,” he said with an amused expression when I once more blurted out if he needed any refreshment. “Do not fret so much. I will let you know if I require anything.”

“Okay,” I said, feeling insanely clumsy. This was not the first impression I wanted to give to my soulmate.

“So you were about to tell me about the Kreelars’ mutation. But first, I would know how you are faring,” he asks, his silver-white eyes studying me intently. “Based on the recordings from the Gladius, you were seriously injured.”

By the way his gaze went slightly out of focus, I suspected he was peering at my soul or aura to get some additional information about my current emotional state.

“I’m fine, all three of us are doing good. Thanks for asking,” I replied with a smile. “The Kreelar and their friends fully patched me up. I don’t know what kind of technology their friends have, but it could give the Xurgens a run for their money. And since our arrival here, they have treated us like esteemed guests. They need us… badly.”

“I’m grateful they were able to mend you. None of this makes much sense. What have you found out since your arrival?” he asked. “Aku claims that humans harmed them.”

I nodded grimly. “What happened is truly messed up and the reason why there are strict Prime Directive guidelines. It’s all the more infuriating that this entire tragedy was caused by the very people who should know better.”

“What do you mean?”

“This whole mess started a little over ten years ago. You probably heard about the incident that led the UPO to make contact with the Sangoth for the first time, right?”

He nodded. “Smugglers were stealing some of the rare metals in their mountains. Competition over those rare resources led to some criminal factions battling over that wealth. If I recall properly, the losing faction ratted out the winner.”

“That’s correct. The Timmons Cartel didn’t take well to losing. They figured if they couldn’t harness that wealth, then no one else would. Without them tipping off the UPO, we never would have known of the Sangoths’ existence. Except a lot of damage had already been done to their population. The UPO initiated some diplomatic talks, and the Sangoths consented to allowing some of our scientists to perform non-intrusive studies of their people.”

“And that’s where Elias Jacobs comes in,” he said with sudden understanding.

I nodded. “His team was there for a one-year study. The Sangoths have extremely strong bones, nearly unbreakable. It stems from the mineral residues in the water that streams through their mountain. Jacobs was hoping to figure out a way to adapt it to other species and help solve things such as brittle bone disease and osteoporosis. But that research went nowhere. The Sangoths possess unique genetic traits that allow them to assimilate those minerals like no other species could.”

“But it allowed him to discover that SS12 serum. Or was that a fabrication?” he asked.

“The Sangoths have nothing to do with that serum,” I said angrily. “During that time, two of the doctors on his team decided to have a romantic getaway in the valley by the river. It was well outside of the authorized area. They were having sex by the water after having a picnic. A Kreelar mother and her child stumbled on them.”

“Blast! I’m guessing that didn’t go well?” Amreth said with a frown.

“That’s quite the understatement. They had never seen humans before, but that wouldn’t have been the problem. The five-year-old child went after the food and started eating it. The man noticed and went to stop the child.”

Amreth flinched, no doubt guessing what followed.

“Thinking that he was trying to hurt her child, the mother attacked him and bit him. The couple managed to escape by shooting her with tranquilizers.”

Amreth cursed under his breath. “I’m not even a doctor and I know better than to inject primitive species with chemicals with no idea how they might react.”

“Exactly. She was knocked out for a few hours. The sedation eventually wore off and she was able to take her child back to the village. At first, all was well. But it was the following week that she started showing signs of illness. The problem was that she was a wet nurse for her people.”

“Tharmok’s blood! She infected others?” Amreth asked grimly.

I nodded. “The sad part is that she stopped nursing as soon as the first symptoms appeared. But the damage was already done. A few days after she got sick, so did many of the children she had been feeding. The Kreelars breastfeed their young until they reach the ages of six to seven.”

“And Jacobs’ team did nothing? Did they even investigate the potential fallout of what they caused?” he asked, outraged.

“Actually, they did,” I conceded. “They quickly realized something was off and intervened. Sadly, it was too late for eight of the children who died. They managed to save the mother, Sora, but she wished she hadn’t survived.”

“What?! Why?” Amreth exclaimed.

“Sora blames herself for what occurred then, what has happened since, and what is currently taking place,” I said, frustrated.

“But that’s not her fault! She was merely defending her child. She had no way of knowing the stranger would have passed on some illness to her,” he argued.

“I fully agree with you, but things turned into something much bigger than what anyone anticipated. We’ve only been at this for three days, but everything we’ve discovered so far only enrages me further.”

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