Page 4 of Soros
When we left after a week on Tandaquon, Jade and Sival chose to stay there to build a life with their children. With Sival being Thaddoinian and his family all living there, we knew they would be in good hands.
Now, we were on our way to Earth on a hunt for Ko’roz. From what I knew, he was a filthy rich Malbreean politician, responsible for heinous crimes. With his killing Keindra and Ziba, the hunt felt personal to Captain Lios and his crew, who were all mourning their colleagues.
I hadn’t known the two women for long, but Ziba had made a big impression on me with her gentle kindness. It felt unfair and meaningless that two warriors fighting to save victims across the Universe would lose their lives when they were still so young.
Despite how badly I wanted to talk to Soros aboutus, I had to respect that everyone was counting on him to track down Ko’roz.
I involved myself in helping Nerix heal after he had been seriously wounded on Markatoria. When he didn’t need me, I used a lot of my time with Star, a hybrid woman who was part Malbreean and part human. The poor woman had been the adoptive mom of Jade and Sival’s two children until we showed up and took them from her. Besides losing the children whom she loved as her own, Star’s entire family with her father, two brothers, and sister had been among the nine criminals that were arrested and now faced the death penalty for their crimes.
We all knew that those would be gruesome executions and I couldn’t speak for the others on board theGreat Defender, but personally, I felt awful for Star. She had been isolated in a tower with only family and servers around for most of her life. With her being half human, she was considered weak among the Malbreeans, who were physically superior compared to the rest of the humanoid races in the Universe.
From what I understood, Star’s mother had been a human who was trafficked and lost her life after giving birth to Star and her twin sister.
None of this had anything to do with me, except that as a hybrid myself I could relate to the feeling of never fitting in. With me being an agent for the Federation, specializing in humans, I had taken it upon myself to look out for Star.
Nerix slept next to me and made a light snoring sound. The first nights that I slept in his room, I’d been bothered by any noise he made. From the moment I met Nerix, we had rubbed each other the wrong way and gotten into heated arguments.
Now, I felt different about his snoring. The large, annoying alien had almost died on Markatoria while keeping me safe. Since then, it was easy for me to tolerate the noise coming from him as it reminded me how grateful I was that we survived that nightmare.
With Jade, Sival, and their two children no longer on the ship, I could have chosen to sleep with Star in the cabin that became available. As I lay next to Nerix, I wasn’t sure why I didn’t, except for one thing. It was pretty evident that Soros thought Nerix and I were romantically involved. In the beginning, my anger with Soros had made me petty.
I had wanted him to suffer just a fraction of what I had suffered from his ignoring me for four years. If it hurt him to think that I was involved with Nerix then that suited me fine. And so, I did nothing to sort out Soros’ misconception of the situation.
If I moved out of Nerix’s cabin it would reveal to Soros that Nerix and I weren’t as close as he might think. No, it was easier this way, keeping Nerix as a buffer between us.
When Nerix whimpered in his sleep, I turned to lie on my right shoulder facing him. With a hand on the strong soldier’s shoulder, I calmed him down. With all the rotten things he had witnessed in his life, it made sense that Nerix would have nightmares. I had only been with the crew for ten days and I was already traumatized by the violence and cruelty I had seen first-hand.
Nerix opened his eyes in tiny slivers. Placing his hand on top of mine, he moved closer, resting his cheek on top of my hair before falling back asleep.
My original fear that Nerix would overstep my boundaries if we slept in the same bed had been proven wrong. Except for some fights about the cover and his snoring, sleeping with him had been uneventful until he got shot on Markatoria. Since then, he had woken me up repeatedly each night because of the nightmares that made him cry and whimper in his sleep. I would take his hand and talk to him to remind him it was just a dream.
Star had offered that I could always call for her if I needed to sleep, and last night I did for a few hours. But at that moment as Nerix and I held hands and lay with his head on top of mine, it felt nice. For a small moment, I closed my eyes and pretended that he was Soros. That was a bad idea as the thought of my lost love made me sad again.
Why can’t I just forget Soros?The question lingered in my head as I felt the vibrations from the engine on theGreat Defenderas the battleship flew toward Earth.
Soros’ analysis of Ko’roz pointed toward Earth as the creep’s hiding spot. With me being a specialist on Earth matters, I was expected to help find Ko’roz. Normally, I wouldn’t hesitate but with Soros being the criminologist it meant we would be working closely together. That part made me nervous. The tension between us was already at the breaking point and I was trying so hard to contain myself and not spew my anger and many questions onto him. Clearly our love affair four years ago hadn’t meant nearly the same to him as it did to me.
Forget him, Tania, I begged myself although I knew full well that if I could, I would have by now.
Maybe I should just go to his room and talk to Soros while he’s alone.Every night since Soros got here, I had struggled with the temptation to seek him out. My gut told me that it wouldn’t end well. I was too angry to have a civil conversation and I didn’t want to wake up everyone when I was bound to explode and let Soros know how hurt I was from his indifference to me.
With a sigh, I tightened my hold on Nerix’s hand and let his slow breathing calm me until I finally drifted off to get some much-needed sleep.
CHAPTER 3
The Other Half-Human
Tania
I found Star sitting in a curled-up position in her room looking out through the window to space.
“Hey.” Getting down on the floor next to her, I let my shoulder touch hers. “How are you holding up?”
Star gave me a brief look and the sadness in her large expressive blue eyes got to me. I could see that she had been crying.
Stating the obvious, I said, “You miss them.”
She was fiddling with the ring on her finger and gave a small nod. “The children were my life. Being a mother gave me a sense of purpose and now it’s like I’m no use to anyone.”
