Chapter 14 Mr. Ka’reen #2
"One additional item," Bebo says. "During the survival period, I recorded three hundred and seven instances of Horgox Ka'reen demonstrating protective behaviour toward Courier Baxter at personal risk.
Fourteen of these instances involved direct physical intervention against threats that could have killed him.
At no point in four hundred seventy-two hours of continuous monitoring did I record any behaviour from Mr. Ka'reen that could be classified as coercive, threatening, or manipulative toward my courier. "
A pause.
"I have also been asked not to discuss the biometric dataset I compiled during certain non-combat activities. I am respecting that request, but I want the panel to know the dataset exists and I have strong feelings about it."
Mother Morrison makes a sound that isn't a cough.
Krilly testifies.
She answers Voss's questions from her seat with the clipped efficiency of a courier filing a report. The crash. The cargo. Meeting me. Survival partnership. The harness removal. Freeing Snowball and Pudding. The data implant.
"And the apex predator threat?" Voss asks.
"I call it Stompy. Which is what I named it after it tried to flatten us by smashing through a canyon wall. Six metres, armoured scales, and ApexCorp's drones herded it directly toward our position as a retrieval tactic."
Vyrath interjects. "There is no evidence ApexCorp deliberately—"
"Bebo, drone flight patterns from the morning of Day Nine."
The display shows three drone trajectories, annotated by Bebo, clearly and systematically driving the Rexor toward the canyon system. Toward us.
"I stand corrected," Bebo says mildly. "There is evidence."
Vyrath's composure holds, but something tightens behind the immaculate presentation.
Then Krilly stands.
Not required. Not prompted. She pushes back her chair, rises to her full five feet and two inches, and faces the panel with the claiming mark visible above her collar and her shoulders squared.
Her fear is real and present and sitting right next to a determination so fierce it burns. I feel both in my chest.
"I will stake my courier licence and my future on Horgox Ka'reen's character."
My markings flare. The shock, the pride, the fear for her.
"If he's deemed a flight risk and he runs, I lose everything. But he won't. He stayed in a murder jungle to protect me when he could have vanished. He taught me to survive. He let me take apart the technology used to torture him and trusted me not to make it worse."
Her voice goes fiercer. "And if you're asking whether I'd free those specimens again, bond with this male again?
Yes. Every time. Because those were people, not inventory.
Because he is a person, not a product designation.
And because the Sentient Rights Accords exist precisely for situations where a corporation decides that conscience is a defect. "
Vyrath has been waiting. Patient, strategic, saving the attack for the moment that matters most.
"Courier Baxter." The Corsairian's voice is pitched to sound reasonable. "You mentioned a bond. A permanent neurological pair-bond initiated during your time on the planet."
"Yes." Krilly's chin lifts.
"Can you explain the biological mechanism?"
"Varkaani horn-touch bonding. Physical contact with the horns during intimacy activates neural pathways that permanently sync two nervous systems."
"Permanently." Vyrath lets the word land. "A permanent neurological alteration, performed on a jungle planet, without medical oversight, without informed consent documentation, and without any independent verification that the bonding mechanism doesn't function as a form of biological coercion."
The room shifts. Krilly's spike of alarm as she recognises the trap.
Vyrath is not attacking the escape. Not attacking the facility raid. Attacking the bond.
"Varkaani biology includes several mechanisms classified as neurological override capabilities," Vyrath continues, addressing the panel.
"The bonding response is one of them. Once initiated, it permanently alters the partner's nervous system, creating dependency, proximity needs, and emotional enmeshment that cannot be reversed.
Courier Baxter was alone, vulnerable, dependent on Mr. Ka'reen for survival.
And during that period of maximum vulnerability, a permanent, irreversible neurological alteration was performed on her by an individual whose species is documented as having biological coercion capabilities. "
My blood goes cold.
They're framing me as a predator. The bond as a weapon. Everything we chose, rewritten as biological manipulation.
Krilly's reaction is not fear. It's fury. White-hot, incandescent, the specific rage of someone watching her best choice turned into evidence of her victimhood.
"Counsel Vyrath, this is a serious allegation," Voss says. "Do you have biological evidence to support it?"
"Varkaani bonding biology is well-documented in xenobiological literature. The mechanism functions through neurological override of—"
"Bebo." Krilly's voice cuts through. Clear, calm, lethal. "Varkaani bonding biology. The consent requirement. Specifically."
"Varkaani pair-bonding requires authentic mutual desire from both parties," Bebo responds immediately.
"The bonding mechanism is biologically incapable of functioning under coercion.
The neural pathways that activate during horn-touch bonding are linked to the same limbic centres that govern voluntary pair-selection.
In the absence of genuine mutual desire, the pathways do not fire.
The bond does not form." A pause. "This is not my editorial opinion.
This is documented Varkaani xenobiology, available in seventeen peer-reviewed publications, which I have archived and can provide to the panel. "
Vyrath opens their mouth. Bebo continues.
"Additionally, I was monitoring both parties' biometric data continuously.
At no point did Courier Baxter's neurochemical profile indicate duress, coercion, or involuntary bonding response.
Her oxytocin, dopamine, and serotonin levels during the bonding event were consistent with genuine emotional attachment and voluntary mate-selection, not with trauma bonding or neurological override. "
Another pause, this one carrying the specific weight of an AI about to say something devastating.
"I should also note that the bonding was initiated by Courier Baxter.
She touched his horns. He did not initiate the contact.
The physical act that triggers the bond was performed by the courier on the Varkaani, not the other way around.
If there is a biological aggressor in this scenario, Counsel Vyrath, it is my five-foot-two courier, not the seven-foot-two gladiator. "
The Corsairian's composure fractures for the first time. A micro-adjustment of posture, the technology at their cuffs flickering. Processing.
"I have the exact timestamp if the panel requires it," Bebo adds. "Oh-three-forty-seven station time. She used both hands. He was, if I may editorialise briefly, not in a position to object."
In the gallery, Crash makes a sound he turns into a cough. Zola has her hand pressed over her mouth. Mother Morrison's coffee mug is frozen halfway to her lips.
Krilly's mortification and triumph in equal measure. Her cheeks burning while the corporate counsel's argument collapses.
"Furthermore," Bebo continues, because Bebo has apparently decided that thorough is the only acceptable operating mode, "the xenobiological literature on Varkaani pair-bonding indicates that bonded mates undergo mutual lifespan synchronisation.
The bonded human partner's biology adjusts over time to approximate the Varkaani lifespan, and vice versa.
The bond is not a temporary alteration with an expiration date.
It is a permanent, mutual biological commitment that ensures both partners share equivalent life expectancy. "
This lands differently. T'Renn's four arms shift. Sorren's silver scales catch the light as he makes a note.
I didn't know Bebo had researched the lifespan question. Krilly's surprise tells me she didn't either. But her reaction underneath the surprise is fierce, warm certainty: of course. Of course we grow old together. Of course the bond doesn't leave either of us behind.
Vyrath recovers. "The AI is hardly an objective—"
"I am a documented, tamper-evident observational system with four hundred seventy-two hours of continuous biometric data," Bebo says. "I am, by legal definition, the most objective witness in this room."
Mother Morrison testifies as character witness.
She speaks from her seat in the gallery with the authority of twenty-three years running impossible operations.
"I've dispatched Krilly Baxter on exactly one solo run.
She crashed, freed enslaved specimens, bonded with a gladiator, and came back with enough evidence to bring down a corporate modification programme.
" Mother pauses. "That's not typical for a first assignment.
But Krilly's parents, Mara and Jakob Baxter, worked Junction One maintenance for nine years.
Her mother kept my coffee maker running three years past its expiration date.
Her father stayed awake forty-eight hours to patch a comm relay during an evacuation.
They died because a corporation decided emergency beacon maintenance wasn't worth the budget cycle. "
Her eyes find me.
"Horgox Ka'reen is not a product. He's not a weapon. He's a male who was given every reason to become a monster and chose, at enormous personal cost, to remain a person." She pauses. "I've seen exactly one other being make that choice under that kind of pressure, and I married him."
T'Renn leans forward. "Deputy Director, are you suggesting a parallel?"