The Colony Special Boxed Set

Chapter 10-1

Maxim

Maxim

A warrior had just died before us all. During the celebration meal with the Prime in attendance. It didn’t bode well for The Colony, and especially Base 3. But that was all secondary to my mate. I worried for her most of all. Had she seen someone die before? Everyone in the room, aside from Lady Jessica, had fought the Hive, been captured and tortured. They knew what it was like to endure, to face death and choose. Cling to life, fight and claw back from the brink, or turn away and allow death to take you. From my own personal hell at the hands of the Hive, I had often wondered if I’d made the right choice. Before Rachel, I sometimes imagined death to be a better choice than survival.

endure, For up until a few days ago when I was matched to Rachel, that was all I’d been doing. Surviving. My brother still served, mated to a human female, a doctor from Earth. Both my brother and his mate, Doctor Rone, served on Battleship Brekk. He had a reason to keep on fighting.

Even that had been taken from me. Until now. Until Rachel.

Just as Prime Nial had said before all f*****g hell broke loose, it was time to live.

liveBut now, f**k. Now our mate had witnessed the cruel death of one of her own. She was in my arms, stiff and unyielding. She wouldn’t give over to my embrace, to the protective shield of my arms. My body couldn’t shelter nor soothe her. She didn’t allow me to comfort her, or shelter her from what happened. No, she fought to be released, to return to Captain Brooks’ side.

My mate was a warrior in her own way. Perhaps she did not carry a weapon, but her mind was sharp as a blade, and I could feel her emotions clearly through the collar. She was not afraid. She was angry. Determined. Stubborn. And so damn beautiful, her fierce resolve only made me want her more.

“It was Quell. Without doubt. Clearly, he was weak,” Doctor Surnen’s voice was filled with disgust and Rachel stiffened at his tone. Her contempt for the doctor blasted me through the collar like poison in my mind. Obviously, the doctor had not made a good first impression. And my mate had neither forgiven nor forgotten their first encounter.

Rachel pushed out of my hold and spun on her heel, her dress swirling around her. “I have no idea what the hell this Quell is, but he wasn’t weak. He was a SEAL, Doctor. Have some respect.” Her words were clipped and full of disdain.

weak. I didn’t like Doctor Surnen, never had, but he knew what he was doing. He was brilliant, and had saved more than one warrior’s life since I’d known him. Many citizens of The Colony arrived immediately after their rescue from Hive captivity, broken and barely recognizable. The doctor always managed to bring them back. Always. He saved what no one else thought could be saved. For that, if nothing else, he’d earned my respect.

“My lady.” Doctor Surnen lifted his head to look at my mate. “I meant no offense to you. Quell is a chemical substance well known on The Colony. It alters the chemicals in the brain to make a user feel happy, to soften the agony of their new life. The Hive Integration Units adapt the biosynthetics of our systems to manufacture and release trace amounts. When we are cut off from the Hive frequencies, those command functions are lost and the cyborg cells stop manufacturing the d**g. Many can’t adapt. They become dependent.”

“So it’s a d**g? Is it legal here?”

“No.” I answered before the doctor could upset her further. “The Hive uses it to speed up the metabolism and weaken the minds of their captives during the integration process. After that, it’s kept at a constant level in our bloodstreams to weaken our minds and make sure we are—biddable.”

She looked down at the captain, her eyes narrowed with thought. “So, it’s a mind-altering high, like Ecstasy back home. Makes you feel happy? Content?”

The doctor raised a brow. “I am not familiar with the term ecstasy outside of a s****l context. But, Quell is often misused by our warriors trying to cope with the dark reality of their new status.”

“Status?” Rachel stepped closer to the doctor, standing over him like a shadow.

“As less. Contaminated. Outcasts.” The doctor ignored my mate, waving the ReGen wand over Captain Brooks’ corpse from head to toe. I didn’t like the way he worded that. The warriors present did not need to hear such dark words from our healer. Our cyborg implants were a cruel reminder of how we’d fought and survived.

.“You’re an asshole.” Queen Deston pushed to the front to stand next to my mate and the two women shared a look I had no hope of deciphering without the connection I shared with Rachel. Agreement. Accord. Friendship. “And Rachel is right. If he was a SEAL, he was tough. I don’t believe he would rip his shirt off at dinner, challenge us like that, and then curl into a ball and drop dead from a d**g overdose. No way.”

Rachel nodded. “I want to run some tests.”

The Earth women were not happy about what had happened to one of their own.

notQueen Deston tilted her head as Ander and Prime Nial flanked her, two of the scariest bastards I’d ever had the pleasure to meet. The Queen lifted her hand to Rachel’s shoulder. “Okay, Miss PhD in BioChem. Figure out what the hell really happened. He’s a veteran. He’s ours. I want answers, because this is bullshit.”

He’s a veteran. He’s ours.

He’s a veteran. He’s ours.The words silenced the entire room as every warrior present absorbed the two women’s reactions. We’d all been labeled outcasts. Less. But veteran was a term of respect offered by our Queen. We’d protected our people and survived the worst hell imaginable. Her acceptance and support was a balm, but it also hurt, like ripping the edges of a freshly healed wound. But it was a pain I welcomed.

“There is no doubt some on The Colony a***e Quell, but not everyone,” I countered.

Doctor Surnen rose to his feet and acquiesced with a nod. “I do not mean to offend, Lady Rone, but based on these test results, Captain Brooks was one of them.”

Rachel looked down at the captain, still on the floor. “I just spoke to him not long ago. He submitted to the brides testing protocol yesterday, seemed eager to be matched. A warrior drowning himself in illegal drugs to ease his agony, wouldn’t have gotten tested,” she countered. Yes, she’d picked up on the doctor’s ill-chosen word.

agony, “You are new to The Colony and do not know the mental anguish we face,” the doctor countered. “You saw how upset he was by having the Hive integrations.”

“That is true,” Rachel replied, clearly thinking of the man stripping off his shirt during a dinner with the Prime. Would that have been appropriate behavior at an Earth function? “But I know Earth men. And I know human physiology and how our bodies react to drugs. That was my job.”

“Yes, and you poisoned and killed hundreds of people.”

I snarled, taking a step toward the doctor, Ryston beside me.

“Careful,” I growled, my hands clenching into fists.

Prime Nial stepped between us. “You will apologize to Lady Rone. You know nothing of her time on Earth, or her past. I believe in her innocence, as do her mates. By baldly stating otherwise, you disrespect their match, the governor of your base, as well as me, the leader of all Prillon people.”

The doctor looked contrite, but only for being called out by the Prime, not because he felt mistaken for his words.

He pursed his lips, bowed his head. “I apologize, Prime Nial. Governor.”

“f**k this. Don’t apologize to us. Apologize to Lady Rone,” I bit out through clenched teeth.

“My deepest apologies, Lady Rone.”

Rachel waved her hand in the air as if none of the men in the room were of any consequence and spoke to the Queen. “Quell in the captain’s system means nothing. It doesn’t indicate how it got into his system. Maybe he took the d**g himself. Maybe not. Maybe, he was poisoned with it. Has that d**g ever caused that effect before, the black streaks in his skin?”

how “No.”

She was right. I’d never seen anything like that before today. While I sensed my mate’s anger and frustration at the doctor, I was also proud of her and amazed to catch a glimpse of her scientific brain at work. There was no time to waste. We needed to learn the truth about the captain’s death. If the cause was nefarious, then we needed to gather the evidence now. Any vague guessing by the doctor or anyone else would only hinder the investigation. And doom more warriors to the same fate.

And if I was in danger, if my people were in danger, I needed to know. Now. I no longer had the luxury of patience. I returned my attention to the doctor.

“Any death on The Colony is to be investigated. A quick pass with the ReGen wand is not sufficient, Doctor. Take him to the medical station for testing. The truth must be discovered.” I turned and faced Rachel, cupped her cheek. “No matter what it is.”

She blinked her dark eyes. We both knew that sometimes the truth wasn’t what we wanted to hear. And no matter what the truth might turn out to be, I had complete faith in her ability to remain objective. The rest of us, the doctor included, I did not trust in this regard. We all had too much bias, too much at stake. We had all accepted the easy answer, the expected answer, too readily. Quell. It had been a problem for several years, and no sooner had we chased one supplier from the planet, another always seemed to rise to take his place.

I looked to Rachel briefly, then glanced at Prime Nial. I saw his mind at work as my mate’s words sank in. I didn’t sense any doubt in her statements, only steadfast objectivity. Looking to Ryston, I saw the second his mind understood what she was suggesting.

The Prime was not a man to mince words. “You’re suggesting something more sinister is going on here? That this was murder?”

Rachel shrugged, but looked our leader in the eye. “I don’t know. The doctor’s initial test may be correct. Captain Brooks could have simply overdosed on Quell. Initial indications with your…wand thing, I’m sure, are accurate to a certain degree. But they do not provide all the details. I only knew him a short time, but he did not strike me as a d**g addict. He was smart and had a wicked sense of humor. We should not limit our focus. If something truly is happening here, then that kind of assumption is exactly what your enemies would want you to do.”

“What enemies?” the Prime asked.

Rachel shrugged. “I am new here and don’t know the politics.” She glanced at me. I knew politics and if Rachel was considering the possibility of murder, then we were in trouble.

A med team came into the room bearing a stretcher. They swiftly scooped up the captain’s body and covered him with a sheet.