Page 18 of Commander's Mate
“My congratulations, Commander. I know what that means to your people,” Guryon said sincerely. “I wish you many years together.”
“Thank you, sir. And thank you for the payment.” I bowed my head in salute and made my retreat with the autocart of aurium coins. We would make it last as long as possible.
I took and autotram back to the shuttle with our aurium and left it under guard at the shuttle and went to meet my team and the women at the Bio Enhancement Clinic. They had finished at the clothing outlet and used their facilities to put on appropriate clothing before going out in public. At the clinic, more advanced chips inserted. The translator chips from the slavers were not removed but would be disintegrated as the new ones became integrated into their memories. The new chips would give them comprehensive knowledge of the main consortium language which was also the primary language of Farseek in a matter of days.
The translator chips installed by the slavers, only allowed them to understand the spoken word which might have sufficed for sex slaves. But they would need a thorough understanding of language to assimilate into our culture. This would give them the opportunity to be retrained and their current skills could be enhanced. They would still retain their memory of their first language.
I am glad I arrived before Harper received hers. The look in her eyes when I walked into the lobby told me she was nervous about the procedure. I stayed with her and held her hand while the technician prepped her and did the procedure. They used a device placed on the forehead to block the pain while the new chip inserted. Each patient received a DNA scan which configured each biochip to their DNA so the body wouldn’t reject it.
Harper was relieved and delighted when the tech finished. She had felt no pain and she began to understand spoken words almost immediately. There were enough technicians on duty so that all the women could be treated at the same time. I noted that my Lieutenant Avantu accompanied Scarlet while she was injected. It appeared that she was attracted to him as well. They were not solmatu, because he would have known that already.
It’s not so common as it once was, and not everyone is willing to wait for a rare possibility. Finding solmatu in Harper could only be an exceptional coincidence, one that has given me hope for the future.
