Chapter 15
Nova
Sleeping for over an entire day meant that Nova woke up groggy, disoriented, and in desperate need of an elimination closet.
After using the closet, she looked around the room. Miran was gone, but she found a data pad blinking. She tapped it and found a note.
Don’t be worried. Section Commander Belor needed to talk to me. I’ll be back as soon as I can. Saris can take care of you while I’m gone.
Who or what was a Saris? She set aside the pad and focused on cleaning up.
She was familiar with folding sonic stalls so it wasn’t hard to pull the one in the room out of the wall.
Stepping in, she let it cycle through. It wasn’t long before she stepped out feeling clean, refreshed, and a little more awake.
The clothes she’d been wearing when he carried her in here were filthy, so she wasn’t putting them back on. Her bag was sitting on the floor next to the bed, but she knew there wasn’t a clean change of clothes there.
She was left with whatever she could find in the room.
She dug around until she found a set of Miran’s clothes.
They were way too big on her, but another search resulted in a decorative woven ribbon that was perfect for a belt for the baggy pants and then she slipped on his shirt.
The neckline showed off a lot of her shoulders, but she was still decent.
The bagginess of the outfit reminded her a little of wearing Fielden garb.
Now that she was dressed, she was desperate to find some food. She had no idea the last time she’d eaten, they’d been so busy with decanting and caring for the kids that everything was done in a rush.
Despite knowing she was probably coming back to this room, she slung her bag over a shoulder.
It didn’t have much in it after leaving some things in the desert, but it still had her ancient data pad with a few credits and the holo display with all the images of the Tiema family and all her friends at the circus.
She wasn’t ready to let it out of her sight yet.
She pressed her palm to the door, unsurprised when it opened for her. Miran hadn’t locked her in the room on the gunship so there’d be no reason to do it here.
The Hissa warrior standing with his back to her door was a surprise, though. He turned to face her and answered her questions before she could ask them.
“Hello Nova, my name is Saris. Miran is with Section Commander Belor, so I’ve been assigned to keep you company.”
So this was the Saris that Miran had mentioned. “How did you know I was awake? Am I being watched?”
He laughed. “No, I’ve been here since Miran left.” He eyed her outfit. “Are you wearing Miran’s clothes because they’re comforting or because you don’t have anything else?”
“It’s all that was in the room,” she said with a frown. The guy was being nice, but she didn’t like that Miran had assigned her a keeper. Not that she could blame him, but still, rude!
“We have clothes that would fit you,” he said. “I can walk you over to where we store everything for the Decanted women, and you can pick out what you want.”
“I need food before anything else,” she said.
“I can do that,” he said and indicated she should follow him. It felt good to move after sleeping so long. She was surprised at the lack of personnel in the corridors. She thought this place would require a lot of crew to run it.
“The Ardent was operating with minimal crew before,” he said, again answering her question before she could ask it. “There are even less of us on the Ardent now because anyone that could be spared is over on the Assist, helping.”
“How are—”
He interrupted her, again accurately figuring out what she was going to ask. “All the children are doing well and progressing at the correct rate.”
“Stop that,” she scowled at him. “Let me ask the question before you answer it.”
He looked embarrassed. “Sorry, it’s a bad habit. It annoys everyone.”
She felt bad for snapping at him. “No, it’s fine.” She nudged him with her shoulder. “What will I ask next?”
He perked up, excited to have permission. “You want to know if you can visit the children after eating.”
He was right. “So what’s the answer?”
“I’m not sure,” he said. “I’ll have to ask Section Commander Belor and then get permission from the menders. I don’t know how long that will take.”
She nodded, resigned to probably not being able to see the kids again. It was fine. It wasn’t like she was their mom or aunt or anything. The Hissa would take better care of them than she could anyway.
Except would the Hissa caregivers know which kids needed more encouragement or who was shy? Should she fight to see them again? Or maybe she should simply sneak over there. It couldn’t be that hard!
Those thoughts bounced around her head while Saris kept talking as they walked. He told her everything he knew about the current situation, including naming every mender, med tech, and warrior on the Assist. She couldn’t keep them all straight but was impressed by this male’s encyclopedic memory.
He was winding down by the time they got to the galley. There were a few men there, but all Nova saw was Nisha eating at a far table and looking like she was having a muted conversation with herself.
Saris chuckled. “It’s good that Nisha’s awake too. Both of you slept so long that both Warik and Miran contacted the menders at different times to see if they should be worried. Mender Jinup said it was normal and not to worry yet.”
She was only half listening to him as she hurried across the room to plop down across from Nisha. The other woman gave her a giant smile and pushed a full bowl of food across the table.
“I got too much, help me finish!”
Nova accepted the bowl and ate ravenously. Saris set down a few more bowls full of food, then moved away to sit by himself and work on a data pad. It made sense that he’d known she wanted alone time with Nisha considering he’d successfully answered all her questions before she asked him.
After they’d both eaten their fill, Nova got to the important topic she couldn’t afford for Saris to overhear.
“Do you have credits or access to any credits?” she asked Nisha. “I can get us out of here. I’m not sure how yet, but I’ll figure something out. The problem is that I used up all my credits back on Fielden.”
“Uh, thanks?” Nisha said, looking confused. “I’ve got plenty of credits, but we don’t have to worry about escaping. If you want to leave, you can leave.”
Nova scoffed. “Not according to Miran and the other guys.”
“That might’ve been true in the past, but not anymore,” Nisha said, waving a hand to indicate something that Nova couldn’t figure out. “Not now that they have me to help them with the Decanting tech.”
Nova couldn't keep the scorn out of her voice. “So they can grow their own slaves now?”
Nisha jerked back as if Nova had hit her. “No, so they can re-grow their civilization. They don’t want slaves, they want their species to survive.”
It was clear she’d missed something. “Wait, what?”
Nisha’s mouth dropped open in surprise. “Did no one tell you about the Great Death?”
“Great Death?”
It was Nisha's turn to look upset. “Did no one tell you what happened?”
“No,” she said with a shake of her head. “Miran, Lazil, and Nerin showed up and bought me. Then things got a little hectic because I escaped, but Miran caught me. Then we ended up on Fielden, and I escaped again. They found me but only because Nerin got hurt.”
“Then you had to come help us,” Nisha said with a nod. “So they didn’t get a chance to explain everything to you.”
“Miran said something about the freedom to pick a warrior as a mate, but I was sure it couldn't be true.”
“It’s all true, but he left out the why,” Nisha said.
“About a decade ago, there was a horrifically deadly disease that killed all the Hissa women and half the Hissa men. They found a vaccine, but they never discovered a cure. It was so devastating that many men who hadn’t died of the disease ended up committing suicide because they couldn’t bear living without their loved ones.
Their civilization almost didn’t survive.
Then they found out that Hissa males are breeding compatible with Decanted human women.
The human scientists combined a lot of different DNA and Hissa was one of them.
There’s just enough to make us able to have kids with them. ”
Nisha paused, as if listening to someone, then shook her head. “I’m not saying I want one yet, or ever, but if I wanted to, I could get pregnant and have Warik’s kid. Either way, it’s my choice, no one else’s.”
“Uh, I’m not pressuring you either way,” Nova said quickly.
Nisha blinked, then grinned. “Oh, no, I didn’t think you were. Sorry, sometimes I think out loud.”
Right, Nova should be used to that by now. While they’d been taking care of the kids before the Ardent arrived, Nova watched Nisha have conversations with everything, including droids, data pads, and even a wall.
Nisha’s expression turned serious. “Look, if you really want to leave after we’ve gotten everyone safely to Hissa, I’ve got a shop on a planet called Torl with a large living space above it. You could stay there until you figure out your next move.”
Nova wanted to believe, but she had doubts. “You want me to wait until we get back to Hissa? That’s too dangerous. Leaving will probably be impossible.”
“It’s not risky. They’ll let you leave if you really want to,” she said.
Nova gave her a suspicious look. “You seem to know a lot. Can you name someone who left?”
Nisha did the thing where she seemed like she was listening to someone only she could hear. It’d be annoying if she wasn’t so cute when she did it. The woman was scary smart so she probably did this to access all the information in her brain.
“No one has left, but not because they weren’t allowed,” Nisha said finally. “They’re all happy. A few kids have even been born. They’re building and thriving on Hissa.”
Nova thought about it for a moment, then shook her head. “No, I'm not convinced. I lost the only family I knew when I was sold to the Hissa. What if I lose my freedom too?”
Nisha looked sympathetic. “You were a slave?”
“Weren’t you?” Nova asked.
“You might not know this, but some Decanted humans were grown for people who wanted a child to love and raise,” Nisha said.
She’d known that in theory but never expected to meet anyone that was created out of love instead of profit.
“You had parents?” Nova asked, feeling only mild envy because she couldn’t regret getting to grow up with the Tiema family.
“I had a mom, but no dad,” Nisha said. “She was amazing, and I miss her every day.”
Nova reached across the table and put her hand over Nisha’s. “I’m sorry.”
Nisha brushed away a tear. “It’s fine. The pain is how we know we are loved.
The Hissa are desperate to love. Did you notice all the warriors that walked in?
They aren’t here to eat, they’re hoping to talk to us.
They’ll want to give gifts and promise anything you want if only you’d consider spending time with them. ”
Nova laughed. “Promises are easy to hand out and hard to keep.”
“But they mean it,” Nisha assured her. “I have access to a lot of information you don’t, including all their messages, laws, and unofficial communications.”
Nova raised an eyebrow. “Did you hack into their system?”
“Something like that,” Nisha said.
“So tell me what you learned,” Nova challenged. “Change my mind.”
“Challenge accepted,” Nisha said. “Not too long ago, there was a Decanted woman named Deena who managed to get away. Although there were a lot of voices demanding that she be found and brought back, their governing council made it law that women could leave if they wanted to.”
Nova frowned. “Wait, you said no one has ever left.”
“Well she left, but she came back,” Nisha said.
“Sorry, I wasn’t counting her because the story was complicated and included her and another warrior running away together later.
They finally decided to return to Hissa, but it was a mutual decision, nothing was forced on her, and her mate was more than willing to stay on the run with her. It was all really romantic.”
Nova wasn’t sure how she felt about Deena’s story. It gave her hope, but it also felt like a trap. Would anyone choose someone over their species?
Nisha continued talking. “Of course the Hissa don’t need to go out hunting for women so much anymore now that they have all the Decanting tech.
They can start growing human-Hissa children and rebuilding their population.
But I don’t think they’ll stop looking because I doubt any of the warriors will give up on the idea that their mate is out there waiting.
But the pressure will be off the women to have kids, so that’s nice. ”
Nova’s brain was working overtime. “Who was the warrior that ran off with Deena?”
“Oh, um,” Nisha hummed as she thought. “Kilan.”
“And everyone knows about what he and Deena did?” she asked.
“Yes, I’m sure,” Nisha said. “It was a really big deal. They were on the brink of civil war over it.”
Nova gaped at her. “Over one couple?”
“Over whether even one Decanted woman should be allowed to leave Hissa,” Nisha explained.
“Remember, that was before they found out that not all the Decanting tech and knowledge had been destroyed.
They were working on the assumption that finding women like us was their only chance of survival.
It says a lot about their species that they decided that valuing women's freedom was more important.”
Nova wanted to believe so badly that it hurt. Did she dare return with Miran and risk losing the freedom she’d only recently gained, or did she run?
She’d already invited him to go, and he’d refused. Did that mean he didn’t really love her?
Nisha had given her more to think about, and she wasn’t sure what to do with all the information.