Page 99 of Defiant

“Our coalition,” Jorgen said, “includes three planets so far—but four species.”

“Humans,” Brade said, “UrDail, kitsen…”

“And taynix,” he finished. “By the vote of our league, we granted them citizenship.”

“You made theslugscitizens?” Brade said, laughing.

Even I was a little surprised at that. Then again, the more time I spent around the creatures, the more I realized they were intelligent—even if their intelligence didn’t work the way mine did. Doomslug wasabsolutelya person, not a pet.

“By your own records,” Jorgen said, “you hold some thirty thousand of these enslaved intelligent beings on this platform. We have come to liberate them.”

“Ah yes,” Brade said. “Liberate our hyperdrives, for your own use. Clever, granting them legal status in an attempt to provide a moral justification. But let’s be honest with one another. Your intentions are the same as if you were raiding our acclivity stone.”

“Think what you want,” he said. “Give us Spensa and the taynix, and we’ll withdraw.”

I was barely listening.

Thirty thousandslugs? Captive here? I’d sensed a large number of them earlier, but that many? Based on what I remembered of our estimations of the Superiority’s numbers, that would be a quarter to a third of all of their taynix.

It was a daunting number, but actually not that many to serve the hundreds of planets in the Superiority. It was no wonder, then, that many lesser worlds often had to suffer long waits for transports to ferry their people from planet to planet. Almost all of those slugs would be serving governments, militaries, or trade activities—each one carefully monitored by the Superiority.

Sure, we could rescue the thirty thousand slugs here. But what about the other eighty thousand enslaved all across the many star systems of the Superiority?

Start with what you can do right now,I thought. That was how you approached any problem. I couldn’t help the slugs unless we won this fight, and I couldn’t help my friends win this fight while I was a ghost or whatever.

I needed to return to my body and restore my powers. And based on the way Brade reacted whenever that doctor used a syringe…I started to have the beginnings of an idea.

“You’re demanding our surrender?” Brade continued to Jorgen, still sounding amused. “Have you seen the size of our respective military forces? You should be begging me for mercy.”

“You’re the one who called me,” Jorgen said to her. “And whatever the numbers say, I think we’ll surprise you.”

“Looking forward to it,” Brade said. “Thank you for gathering together here so I can annihilate you.” She gestured, cutting the feed, then immediately stalked over to her aides. “They’re after the hyperdrives and the commslugs? Idiot didn’t even realize he should keep his objectives hidden. What can we do?”

“Don’t let any of their forces slip through to Evensong,” one of them offered. The larger platform, after all, was the one that held the slugs. Not in habitats, but boxes.

“Not good enough,” Brade said. “Bring up the installation commander.”

A moment later, a red-skinned dione appeared on the holoscreen and saluted.

“Commander,” Brade said, “institute a full lockdown of all the hyperdrives on Evensong.”

“Very well, sir,” the dione said. “What level of authority?”

“Admiral Elite or higher in rank,” she said. “Requiring biometrics to unlock.”

“Sir?” the dione said. “Each taynix will be fully secured in its own box, but with our system on full lockdown…I won’t be able to unlock the systems if I need to.”

“Of course you won’t,” Brade said. “That’s the point. This way, the enemy can’t torture you to give them what they want.”

“Sir,” the dione said, saluting again, and obviously not liking the prospect of torture. “I’m instituting the lockdown now. What of the inhibitors and the communications taynix?”

“We need the inhibitors active,” she said. “And…I assume the communications taynix are facilitating comms from around the Superiority?”

“Hundreds of thousands of them a second, sir,” they said. “Our primary duty is to keep that all up and running. A full lockdown would cut it off.”

“Leave it up for now,” Brade said. “Just make sure no one can get those hyperdrives. Without them, there’s little chance of the enemy winning here, even if they sneak past our forces.”

“It’s done, sir,” the dione said. “Installation shield is fully up as well.”

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