Chapter 6 #2
After the torment of recent chrono-weeks, he decided he deserved a little reward.
The highlight would be watching Lily’s inevitable struggle.
Track staff strapped her in and finished the safety checks. She was ready almost at once.
Khar did not notice he had leaned forward, elbows on his knees, eyes fixed on her.
Lily’s launch was decisive. Perhaps not as explosive as his, but her rhythm on the opening straight was good.
Then came the first corner.
Instead of braking, the vehicle accelerated.
She tried to correct.
The car hit the barrier and spun.
The gravity fields scrubbed the speed at once, but even so the forces slamming into her body must have been immense.
Ice terror seized Khar.
For a heartbeat his entire frame locked as his senses went into overdrive, capturing every flicker of the impact and hyper-focusing on the shape rattling in the driver’s seat. He was more shaken than he had ever been in any Legion brawl or battle beyond.
Had it simply been too long since real conflict? Or was his body rebelling because he had taken part in such an unequal contest?
He did not know.
He vaulted the railing in a single motion, landed in a bloom of dust, and sprinted across the sand toward the now-silent vehicle, every muscle fiber singing.
He reached the door first, far ahead of the techs, only for Lily to push it open from the inside, almost knocking him over.
“Oh, Khar, sorry. I didn’t see you there.”
People did not simply overlook Khar. Not with his size and the gravity he cast over any space.
But Lily was the exception to every rule.
His gaze swept her body, searching for blood, bruises, any sign of injury. Finding nothing, he let out the breath he had not realized he was holding.
“What happened? You drove straight into the wall.”
Before he could continue, Karora and the technicians reached them and swarmed around Lily like a worried insect-hive around its queen.
Lily looked more embarrassed than flattered. She ignored Khar’s question and spoke directly to their guide.
“Karora, I didn’t damage anything, did I?”
Surprise flashed across the Dak’ri’s face. Of course Lily was fine. That was what the gravity fields were for, though even with all precautions the forces were harsh on most bodies.
“No, Lily, do not worry. No damage. And if there had been, our insurance would have covered it.”
Relief softened Lily’s features, then she gave Karora a hopeful look from beneath lowered lashes.
“In that case… could I try again?”
“But of course. As long as you are sure you are alright.”
After assuring Karora that she was being overprotective, which Khar absolutely did not agree with, Lily returned to the tuning booth while they prepared a new vehicle for her. With the sim-cowl over her head, she gestured decisively.
“Can we swap the pedals? Throttle on the left, brake on the right? It is hard to drive opposite from what I am used to. When I slid, I stepped on the throttle instead of the brake.”
They honored every request.
Until she asked them to set all assistance to minimum and switch from automatic to manual.
Then Karora frowned.
“Are you sure about that? Most drivers prefer these assists. If you turn them off, the experience will be completely different. You will have to track far more at once and, in light of the earlier crash, in short, it is practically a different sport.”
“I’m sure. The assists overcorrect. It feels like driving a toy. Trust me, Karora, this will be fine. It will be closest to the Earth cars I know.”
For the first time Khar saw Lily stand her ground that firmly. It surprised him, even as he silently agreed with Karora’s misgivings.
He resisted the urge to rub the base of his horns, a classic Divani tell for stress. He had trained himself not to show weakness. Instead he waited by the line with the techs, VoidBrace linked into the track network, eyes locked on Lily.
When the lap began again, his hidden worry evaporated.
He watched, spellbound.
The jet-black car ran far wilder than his. Tires spinning, controlled drifts across the shifting terrain.
But the mastery was absolute.
Steep climbs, vicious weather, unstable ground, hairpin turns, none of it slowed her.
She was simply perfect.
Past the finish laser she braked with a long squeal, sprang out of the seat, and ran straight to him.
“That was divine. Thank you for talking me into this, Khar.”
“Yes. Not bad. You will have to go faster to catch me.”
His brevity did nothing to dim her mood. Arm in arm with Karora, she floated back up to the skydeck, chattering about race types, vehicles, and the other drivers.
Khar did not follow, though the adoration due a record-holder waited for him above.
Deep down he knew he did not deserve it.
Yes, his lap had been faster. But every ground-vehicle pilot knew true skill showed when systems failed and the driver had only themselves. Maybe the gawking masses did not know Lily had shut the assists off.
Khar did.
He had thought his torment was over.
It had only just begun.
Chrono-cycles blurred together. No night, no day. Only the human female’s face, always before him. Not even trying, yet always better. Always above him. Always humiliating him.
The worst part was that she did not even know.
He imagined the moment Lily realized how thoroughly she outstripped him. In his mind she laughed at his inadequacy, disgusted.
No.
That could not be allowed to happen.
It didn’t help that he kept finding common ground with her, as if the path to becoming enemies kept splitting into something else—something far more dangerous.
One cycle, Lily had been following Khar’s smooth movements across Vitro’s main console when she suddenly burst out in her melodic, and therefore intolerably smooth, voice.
“I think it’s very strange that this spaceship is the absolute luxury cruiser and her technology is mind-bogglingly advanced by human standards, and yet it has buttons and a few screens and voice control instead of something more… I don’t know… sciency and efficient.”
Khar looked at her appraisingly. He seemed inclined to answer with his usual hum, but in the end the topic appeared to interest him.
“The IMPERIUM moves in technological cycles. It is not always the quickest innovation that becomes widespread. Some beings prefer physical touch over the fluidity of plasma screens. Herion perfected the balance, creating an inviting system while still enabling full thought control, if one possesses the device for that… which I see you do not. Why is that?”
Lily blushed, which reminded him of the red of a delightful but deadly spice that Divani youth sometimes enjoy for pranks.
“I’m fine with the translator … but the thought controller chip felt excessive. What about you, Khar? I don’t see any markings.”
With one sharp claw, Khar tapped the root of one of his horns, producing a faint metallic clink. Lily squinted, then did that strange human nodding of hers when she recognized the thread.
“I also only have the translator,” Khar confirmed.
After a brief silence, during which Khar contemplated ending the conversation, a sudden surge of words found their way out of his blasted mouth.
“You were right not to acquire that. They were advertised as safe. They are not.”
The way her clear, lightless, yet sparkling eyes locked onto his face was like a scorching mark he could not bear any further.
In a final act of desperation, he considered poison.
Despicable, craven, cowardly, but he could not bear the thought of being outdone by a small female.
She did not have to die. That would trigger an investigation and end badly for him.
But if she were incapacitated, he could claim honor forbade him to fight such a weak opponent and the whole business could be quietly forgotten.
Just a tiny dose.
A pinch of red harmun in her lunch.
Non-lethal, but for most species it caused vomiting and chrono-cycles of bed rest. Trivial.
As expected, Lily accepted the meal without suspicion.
Almost too easy.
“You brought me lunch? Thank you, Khar, that is so kind of you. You know, on Earth…”
She launched into a long explanation of Human food customs and traditions.
Khar did not hear a word.
He stared, unblinking, waiting for the first bite.
He would not let her eat much. He did not want real harm, only enough to make her unfit to fight.
One bite.
Two.
Three.
“Khar, this…”
She lifted a hand to her mouth and made a small sound. Like a cough, but tiny.
“It is pretty spicy. Do Divani like this? It is not bad, do not get me wrong. We have much hotter dishes on Earth, but I prefer only mildly spicy food. Hm. It is getting better. The first bite just surprised me.”
Khar did not understand.
The dish was so hot he had wept black tears after a single bite, his inner glow dimming with the pain. Shameful, pitiful, but he had tasted it first to be safe. He could not be too obvious. If there was an inquiry, he needed plausible deniability.
It had to be edible for him. Barely, and crying, but edible.
By the time he collected his thoughts, Lily had finished the entire plate.
Oh no.
What have I done?
He was already calculating how fast he could drag her to a med station for immediate treatment after so much harmun.
Then Lily made a sound he had never heard from her before.
Khar shut his eyes, accepting that his life was over.
He had murdered a colleague whose only crime was making him feel threatened. There would be an investigation. The station would buzz about the cowardly Divani. The thought flooded him and closed like a fist around his throat.
“Khar, sorry, I started hiccuping. I will drink some water. It will pass.”
He stared.
She had to be delirious.
She had eaten a full serving and nothing?
A horrible suspicion dawned.
“Human female, how does your digestive system work?”
“Um, I don’t know exactly. Sometimes spicy food makes me hiccup. I think it has to do with stomach acid, but I am not sure.”
“Stomach… acid?”
“Yes, that. You know, hydrochloric acid and the like. It’s so corrosive it can make metal smoke if you drip it on, but a layer of mucus protects the stomach so it doesn’t digest itself. I’m no expert, but it’s one stage of human digestion.”
Khar sat there and tried to process the new brick that had just been mortared into the impenetrable wall in front of him.
A being that looked like something a Divani child might invent to ward off night terrors, yet stronger and faster than the most famous Divani warrior. With puny claws. With skin that behaved like armor.
And hydrochloric acid sloshing around inside.
In that moment Khar accepted he had been defeated. He needed no further proof from Lily to know his claim to superiority was gone, irrevocably.
He scooped up a spoonful of his own now-cold meal.
Black tears ran down his cheeks as he forced himself to eat every last bite.