Page 4 of Shattered Silence

Enki decided that when he eventually figured out how to extract the pest from his brain, he was going to take great pleasure in causing it immense pain as he crushed it—whether physically or psychically, or both.

“Please don’t leave me,” the female begged. “If you retrieve me and return me to Earth, I can repay you in Universal credits. A lot of credits.”

“If I choose to retrieve you, it will not be for the sake of credits. Keep this communication open and wait.”

“Y-you’re coming?”

Enki didn’t give her an immediate answer. Instead, he opened his personal comm, alerting Lodan and Nythian.

“Problem, Enki?”

“What’s up, brother?”

Their simultaneous questions cut through the silence like an iceblade. Enki had no idea whether they’d been asleep or not, and that was to be expected, because a First Division warrior never truly slept.

Eternal vigilance was hard-wired into their highly modified bodies.

“There is a problem,” he said.

“Enemies in our airspace?”

“No. A human. She is requesting a retrieval.”

“A human. Deep in the Ninth…” Nythian sounded incredulous. “Are they mad?”

“Evidently.”

“What’s her location?”

“Unknown.”

Both warriors groaned.

“I’ll comm the Fleet Station and tell them to expect a delayed arrival,” Lodan sighed. “We really don’t have a choice, do we?”

Long ago, when they were still mindless servants of the Old Empire, they probably would have ignored the helpless human’s cries, leaving her to the mercy of the Universe.

But things were different now. The protection treaty the Kordolians had signed with Earth’s ruling Federation extended to all human citizens, no matter where they were. It was probably a good thing the General had put the treaty in place. It had become their unofficial rulebook.

Insta-morals. Enki needed rules, because his own morals were dangerously fluid. Sometimes, he felt nothing at all, and ever since he’d been retrieved from the Ghost Planet, that numb feeling had become a hundred times worse.

It made a killer like him supremely dangerous.

And really, the only living being in the entire Universe who could enforce such rules upon him was Tarak al Akkadian.

“If we don’t come for her, she will die,” he said bluntly.

“You are coming, right?” Impossibly, her panicked voice caught him by surprise.

Ah. He’d forgotten the comm was wide open. She’d heard everything.

“We are coming.” The words felt strange as they left his mouth, partly because he wasn’t much of a talker, and partly because he’d never offered to help anyone before.

And he realized this was the first time he’d ever spoken to a human.

There was a first time for everything.

Deep in the recesses of his mind, the Tharian chuckled, somehow finding Enki’s predicament amusing. Annoyed, Enki crushed its insidious laughter with a single thought, exercising the brutal self-control that had been drilled into every single cell of his body over countless sessions of excruciating training.

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