Chapter 15
Rykar
The second wave of psychic distress that hit Maya was stronger than the first, and I watched helplessly as she doubled over, clutching her head with both hands. Her face had paled, and I could see the muscles in her jaw clenched tight against what must have been incredible pain.
I didn’t hesitate. Scooping her up in my arms, I headed for the chamber’s exit at a pace that would have been reckless if I’d been thinking clearly. But all I could think about was the terror flowing through our bond, the sense of immediate danger that made my skin crawl.
“Maya, I’ve got you.” The psychic link between us was chaotic, filled with overlapping emotions and sensations that I couldn’t separate into coherent meaning.
Fear, urgency, violation—all of it tangled together with the Sola’s desperate attempts at communication.
“We’re going to the heart chamber,” I said. “I can understand her better there.”
The corridors of the Sola seemed to shift around us as we moved, the living walls pulsing with an agitated rhythm that matched my own racing heartbeat.
Whatever was happening, the Sola herself was in distress, and that meant Maya was going to continue suffering until we could figure out what was wrong.
“Hold on,” I murmured against her ear as we navigated the twisting passages. “We’re almost there.”
The heart chamber’s entrance dilated as we approached, the organic doorway recognizing our bond and our urgency. I carried Maya inside and set her down gently beside the consciousness crystal that served as the Sola’s primary communication interface with me.
The moment I laid my hand over the crystal, the chaotic psychic noise resolved into something that made my blood turn to ice.
Images flooded through the connection—exterior views of the Sola’s hull showing corporate personnel in advanced environmental suits using some kind of cutting tool to breach the outer shell.
They’d created an opening just large enough for several people to enter, far from any of the natural entry points that the Sola could monitor and control.
“They’re inside,” I said in a voice tight with anger. “They’ve cut their way in without permission. She can feel them moving through her corridors like an infection.”
More images followed—corporate “extraction specialists” moving through the Sola’s interior passages with military precision, heading directly for the heart chamber. They carried weapons I didn’t recognize, along with what looked like medical equipment designed for field sedation and transport.
They weren’t here to negotiate. They were here to take Maya and the Sola by force.
“How long do we have?” she asked, and I winced, because I knew she wouldn’t like my answer.
“Minutes, maybe less,” I replied. “They have devices that are tracking our heat signatures.”
Maya’s hands shook. Her eyes closed as she leaned against me. “We’re trapped.”
I was already calculating how to stop them. Without abandoning the Sola. I could—and would—signal for help, but it would come too late. And if these intruders used their weapons, the situation could get even more dangerous.
“Yes.” I pressed my lips to her forehead.
“But we aren’t defenseless. I’m still a Destran male, and I can fight.
” I hated how my words felt hollow. I hadn’t chosen a weapon yet, according to Destran custom.
I hadn’t engaged in more than a few brief scuffles in rowdy space outposts since becoming a transport pilot.
Most lords were warriors before a Sola chose them.
They’d selected their traditional arms and were well trained in them before bonding.
But I’d seen no reason for such a decision, telling myself a blaster stowed under my ship’s operator seat would suffice.
Now that indifference was going to cost us everything.
The sound of approaching footsteps was clear through the otherwise empty corridors outside the heart chamber. Heavy, measured steps that spoke of military training and hostile intent were upon us.
“Rykar,” Maya said, her voice suddenly urgent. “The Sola wants to tell you something.” She’d turned and was staring at the screen the Sola used to speak to her through.
I followed her gaze. It read: brEATHE WITH ME.
What did that mean? Before I could ask what she meant, the chamber’s entrance dilated open and three figures in full combat gear stepped inside. Their laser weapons were already raised, barrels tracking across the room until they found Maya and me beside the consciousness crystal.
“Dr. Maya Chen,” the leader said, her voice distorted by the environmental suit’s speaker system. “You are designated corporate property under the terms of your employment contract with LunarLink Surveys. You will surrender yourself for immediate extraction and decontamination.”
“I’m not property,” Maya said, her voice steady despite the fear I could feel radiating through our bond. “I’m a human being with the right to make my own choices.”
“Your decision-making capacity has been compromised by alien influence,” the woman replied in a flat, rehearsed tone. “For your own safety and the safety of Earth’s corporate interests, you will be sedated and transported to the corporate medical facility for evaluation and treatment.”
One of the other specialists raised what was clearly a tranquilizer weapon, the kind designed to drop a human being in seconds.
The sight of it aimed at Maya triggered something primal in my chest, something that had nothing to do with conscious thought and everything to do with the absolute certainty that I would not—could not—let them take her.
“No,” I said, angling my body to protect Maya as the agent’s finger moved toward the trigger. “You’re not taking her anywhere.”
“Stand aside, alien,” the leader commanded. “Your interference with corporate recovery operations constitutes an act of aggression against Earth interests. You have no authority here.”
“This is my Sola,” I replied, feeling something shift inside me as the words left my mouth. “You have no authority here.”
The agent fired.
I moved without thinking. My body responded to instincts I didn’t know I possessed as I rolled with Maya away from the crystal.
The tranquilizer dart passed harmlessly through the space where we’d been and bounced uselessly off the wall.
I was close enough to the extraction team to see the surprise on their faces through their helmet visors.
The corporate specialists had advanced weapons and military training, but they were fighting inside a living ship that responded to my will—or was beginning to.
Breathe with me.
The words weren’t on the screen, and if they were, I wasn’t looking at it. They were clear and bright and in my head. “What does that mean?” I said aloud, not caring if no one understood what I was talking about.
Another one of them tried to get a clear shot at Maya, but the floor shifted slightly beneath their feet, upending their shot.
Urgent confusion made my teeth grit. Breathe with me?
How was I supposed to do that? I didn’t even know if Solas breathed at all.
All I knew was there were three of them and one of me, and they were wearing armor that would nullify a direct punch from me.
Worse, I could feel Maya’s terror through our bond.
The intruders split up, weapons raised as they broke apart.
One of them managed to get behind me, and I felt the sharp sting of a neural disruptor against my back.
My knees buckled as electricity coursed through my nervous system, and I heard Maya scream my name as my knees hit the floor, still cradling her in my arms.
“Fuck. That should have knocked him out,” the attacker muttered.
“Target acquired,” the leader announced into her comm system. “Beginning extraction protocol.”
I watched helplessly as they approached Maya, one of them already preparing another sedative. She trembled, whimpering, but was too weak to do more than that.
“Please,” she said, and the desperation in her voice cut through me like a blade. “Don’t do this. I’m not anyone’s property. I’m not anyone’s asset.”
“You’re a valuable corporate resource,” the leader replied, raising the tranquilizer gun. “And resources belong to their rightful owners.”
Something broke inside me at those words.
Not shattered—transformed. The fear that had defined me for ten cycles, the certainty that I would fail anyone who depended on me, the careful distance I’d maintained to avoid the pain of loss—all of it dissolved in the face of an absolute truth that burned through me like star fire.
I would not lose Maya. I would not fail again. Not when she was depending on me. Not when I had the power to save her. I pulled in a deep breath, and knew in that moment I wasn’t breathing alone.
Breathe with me.
Awareness coursed through me like hot water through my veins.
Ah, I understand, I projected through the bond with every fiber of my being.
I closed my eyes, but I could still see.
The responsibility, the connection, the complete surrender of the isolation that had protected me, washed away as I fully, truly connected with my Sola.
The response was immediate and overwhelming.
Power flooded through me as the Sola’s consciousness merged her mind to mine.
This was not the limited partnership I’d been experiencing, but a complete melding of purpose and will.
I could feel the Sola’s ancient strength, her vast knowledge, her profound relief at finally having a lord who understood what it meant to carry the weight of memory and loss.