Ovation (Galaxy Circus #9)

Chapter 29

CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

Lila

G hosie is still sleeping with the fairies when we return to the first group of breeding cells. Zeydan, Saxon, and Xavier have been busy. They have unfrozen the two other humans and are trying to question them. The male is cupping the stump of his arm and sobbing, and the female is glaring at my guys.

“Everything okay?” Xavier smiles as we return, scanning Brannock and nodding. “Looks like you got your revenge,” he comments.

Brannock grunts. “Part of it. I need a shower.”

Xavier waves his hand and uses his magic to clean Brannock. Brannock nods his gratitude, turning his focus to the female. She shivers under his intense stare, but then she sees me over his shoulder.

“Oh my god, a female Aaz’axian. I thought they didn’t exist,” she mutters, eyeing me with greedy hunger.

I let the form drop away, then I conjure my armor, covering my naked body. She blinks, and that greedy hunger intensifies. “What are you?” she sounds awed, and I ignore her, satisfied with her going to her death without ever knowing what I am.

“Nothing you’re ever going to get your hands on.” Saxon bares his fangs at her and hisses.

“Where are the children? Have you brainwashed them?” Zeydan asks, and she clamps her lips shut, losing interest in me in the face of his god form.

“Bitch isn’t talking?” Tirrian asks, and Saxon shakes his head.

“The younger ones aren’t, but a few of the older ones have started being programmed,” the helpful guy responds. “I will take you to them, but you will have to be alert, because the older ones may attack, though I’m almost certain there is a trigger word.”

“Shut your fucking mouth!” the female scientist screams at him.

The guard just moans, and I come up with an idea. I make my way over to the chair he’s tied to and crouch down in front of him. “I can fix that for you if you want,” I tell him gently, and he cracks an eye open. A drop of sweat trickles down the side of his face. “I can probably even reattach the hand.” I cross my fingers that I’m not lying. “But you need to give me something. What’s the trigger word for the soldier kids?” I ask him, and he mutters something I can’t hear.

“Don’t you dare, Phil,” the female scientist shouts. “Shut your fucking trap. We will be rewarded with our loyalty. Smith promised us powers.”

Xavier snorts with amusement. “Smith is halfway across the galaxy. He left you to fend for yourselves. He can’t give you shit.”

“He’s going to bring water back from the planet Skarr. It was one of the things that woman promised him when they made a deal.” In her panic, the woman is blabbing Smith’s plan to us without any prompting.

“What could Smith have given Vivax that allowed him to bargain with her?” Zeydan murmurs quietly, but the female hears it and starts laughing hysterically before spewing more information. It’s then I realize Xavier has worked his magic and manipulated her emotions so she has no inhibitions and the secrets are pouring out. She’s kind of giddy, like she’s high.

“She wanted him to kill a couple of the aliens years ago, but Smith had other ideas. He decided he was going to capture them and experiment on them. They were the first of our breeding program. We’ve gathered a lot more since the originals. They were duds anyway. It was only recently that they managed a successful breeding. Smith tried all sorts of combinations, but the male was never able to get another female pregnant, and the females were never fertilized by other males.”

“Was everyone in this facility raped?” Tirrian growls, and the female blanches and shakes her head. “No, the control collars have a needle that injects a chemical compound into them,” she says.

“It’s basically GHB,” the male scientist says with disgust. “They were mentally and chemically manipulated into fucking each other. None of the aliens are to blame in the least, except for the one he obviously took care of.” He nods in Brannock’s direction.

“What is GHB?” Zeydan asks, and the rest of my guys look confused as well, even though my righteous fury is slowly starting to build again.

“GHB is a date rate drug. It’s illegal, but it’s popular in the party scene. It produces feelings of euphoria, confidence, relaxation, and sociability, which is great if you knowingly take it, but it gets slipped unknowingly into drinks, making the consumer susceptible to things they may not be interested in if they were sober.”

“Yes, and all of the aliens had a low tolerance to it, so it made them horny. Getting them to fuck after administering it to them really wasn’t an issue.” The male sounds ashamed.

The guard in front of me mutters something, and I have to lean closer to hear it.

“Kitrubu? What does that mean?” I lean back on my heels. Why isn’t my universal translator translating it? “Do any of you know?” I ask, wondering if my translator is broken with all my changes today.

All of them shake their heads. Well, shit.

“It’s Sumerian for sacrifice,” the helpful scientist offers. “It makes sense that they’d use something nobody else is familiar with.”

“How do you know?” I ask, perplexed at this random bit of knowledge.

“Dead languages are my specialty. It was why I was tapped for this program. Some of the aliens don’t speak any known language, and Smith wanted me to create a dictionary of sorts.”

“That’s bullshit. All aliens who reside on Earth or come here for a vacation are required to have a translator implant. You’ve been conned,” Saxon tells the man who nods and grins.

“Yes, I know that now, and you know that, but the rest of these idiots don’t.”

I’m growing to like this guy. “What’s your name?” I ask him, and he blinks in surprise. “Doctor Matthew Raynor. My wife, Melissa, works in the soldiers’ cell block, looking after the children. Please don’t kill her,” he begs. “I promise to tell you everything you want to know.”

“He certainly has been helpful,” Zeydan agrees, and Xavier and Saxon concur.

“Okay, Matthew, I’ll tell you what’s about to happen. We are going to release all of these aliens. We are then going to escort them to our ship where they will be assessed. If any of them point the finger at you for being involved in any form of torture or maiming, I’ll kill you without blinking, but if none of them have a bad thing to say about you or Melissa, then I’ll let the two of you live and possibly offer you a job when we’re done. Okay?”

He quickly agrees, and I stand up and back away from the male guard.

“Hey, my hand?” he croaks, his voice broken from his screams.

“Oh, I lied. I saw in your mind what you did to all of these beings and you, sir, are a sick fucker who deserves all that is coming to you.”

He starts shouting, and I freeze him again. The woman also starts complaining, so I give her the same treatment.

“Xavier, we’ll go back to the door, and I will phase you through so we can get the power started again. Then we will start releasing some of these people.”

He agrees, and I turn to Brannock. “I hate to ask you to wait, but I’m assuming Chloe’s in the soldiers’ wing, and I don’t want to release those children until we can reunite them with their parents.

He heaves out a sigh. “I hate it, but I understand.”

“When the power comes back on, we need to turn on all these terminals and transfer the information to the ship so we can comb through it all. When we are done and everyone is evacuated, I want Tirrian to shift again and burn this place to the ground. It’s a secure level, so the rest of Area 51 should be none the wiser. We will police our own people now, and Earth politicians can go fuck themselves. Agreed?” I ask, and my mates who are conscious respond in the affirmative.

I look at Ghosie. “I’m not sure what to do with him. That must have been a super strength sedative.”

Xavier chuckles. “It would have knocked Viggy out.”

“And you used two?” I screech, hurrying over to check that my bear is still breathing, but Saxon catches me as I move past him.

“He’s fine.” He brushes a hand over my hair. “He’s sleeping like a baby and will likely stay that way for a few more hours. We will use telekinesis to move him to the platform and take him home.”

“Why is he still that big?” I ask, pointing at his giant shaggy form.

Xavier shrugs. “No clue, but we expect him to go back to normal when the sedative wears off and he wakes.”

“Let’s hurry up. This place is giving me the heebie-jeebies,” Tirrian grumbles, smoke wafting out of his nose.

“Imagine how all of them feel,” Brannock says, gesturing to the closed doors. I can’t see anyone watching us anymore, but I don’t blame them. They could be jumping from the frying pan and into the fire. For all they know, we’re worse than Smith.

I t doesn’t take long to get the power up and running again, and we release the first room of prisoners. The prisoners are reluctant to come out, and when Xavier announces who he is and that the Galaxy Circus is here to rescue them, it doesn’t get any better.

“Why should we trust you? We were told that the Adams brothers sold that bastard Smith a list of all aliens on Earth,” a voice calls from inside one of the rooms.

“Like fuck they did!” I exclaim.

“Shut up, blood sucker,” another voice calls. “You know that isn’t true.” I spin around to find a female exiting the breeding room, tears streaming down her face. “Is it true you’re getting us out of here?”

“Absolutely. We are going to transport you to the Galaxy Circus and then the Celestian royal family is sending a ship. You will travel to Celestia to be assessed by their medical professionals, both physically and mentally, and once they clear you, you are free to leave. We will ensure you are escorted to wherever you want to go. We have the full backing of not only the Celestian royal family, but also the Vilaxian and warlock leaders.” I wave to Saxon and Xavier. Xavier gives a little finger wave, and Saxon dips his head in greeting. “Not to mention the dragon royal family from Fluxx, the leading streak on Iceen, and the support of the crown prince of Aquilia. I also have the heirs of both Pleasure Bot Industries and the suva trade in my pocket.”

The female purses her lips and whistles. “You have some heavy hitters.”

I nod, taking her hand and giving it a reassuring squeeze. “Yes, and they are all dedicated to seeing the people responsible for your imprisonment get punished. Most of the people in this facility are already dead. We haven’t gotten as far as the nursery yet, but everyone else was taken care of.”

While Tirrian and I were busy with Brannock, Xavier used his handy people dissolving spell to dispose of all the dead bodies.

“And it’s only a matter of time before we catch up with Smith. I guarantee he will pay in blood for what he has wrought here.”

“Come out, everyone, she’s telling the truth,” the female calls, and I blink in surprise.

“You can tell that?” I ask her, and she nods.

“Yes. One of my Skarrian abilities is to discern people’s motives and whether they are being truthful or not.”

“You’re from Skarr?” I ask, feeling tears build in my eyes.

“Yes, and I knew the Adams brothers weren’t responsible. I could feel the lies the scientists and Smith told, but I also knew them personally. I was friends with their son and daughter-in-law. We were neighbors once upon a time, and I was the one who looked after you when they had their accident.” Her eyes blur with tears. “Lila, you’ve grown into such a beautiful young woman.”

I’m stunned into speechlessness.

“Lila’s memories were manipulated, and some of them have not returned yet,” Xavier explains when I can’t talk because the lump in my throat is so big.

“Yes, I know. I was the one who called your parents when it happened and summoned them to Earth. Xylene and I cried buckets of tears the day we handed you over to child services. I wanted to keep you, but they insisted it was what your parents wanted. Thankfully they did, because I was captured roughly a year after their deaths.”

“You’ve been in here for almost twenty years?” Saxon sounds incredulous, and the woman nods.

“Yes, I didn’t think I was ever going to leave.”

“I’m sorry, I don’t remember your name,” I say to the woman, and she smiles gently.

“I’m Amanda, but you called me Mandymoo.”

Something prickles in my mind, and a memory of a younger Amanda pushing me on a tire swing in the backyard of a large home flutters through my mind.

“Are any of the children yours?” Zeydan asks gently, and her eyes widen slightly at his appearance.

“Babe, do you want to maybe reel in the whole godly being thing now?” I suggest, and I can see him think about it.

“You’re a god? Which one?” Amanda asks.

“I am Zeydan, the earth elemental god.”

“Come with me.” Amanda grabs his hand and tugs him through the medical facility. I hear the rest of the occupants in the first rooms start to chatter amongst themselves, and I realize they had all ventured out while we were distracted. Most of them are humanoid in appearance, which was one of the conditions for being able to reside on Earth, since they needed to blend in, but I can’t tell you what species they are.

“Go,” Brannock encourages. “We will get these people to the transporter and catch up. The others are all back on the ship and ready to receive the refugees. Link, Mark, Susie, and Aarin are all on standby.”

“Thank you,” I call to him and follow after Amanda and Zeydan. The others remain behind to assist the shaken captives who all seem incredibly emotional now that they know they are being rescued. I think Xavier will probably need to do some mood stabilizing to get them to cooperate.

I reach the other room and find Amanda staring down at what remains of Relgrael. She gives him a vicious kick with her toe, and I shudder. I wonder if she was one of the ones who was forced by him. Her resilient Skarrian vagina may have survived sex with him, but it would have hurt.

“Do you have any children?” I ask her, and she shakes her head. “No. Skarrian children only happen once you have bonded with your chosen mates, and everyone in the mating circle needs to be involved,” she reminds me, and I grimace. She gives me a small smile. “Thankfully in here, mutual orgasms were not a frequent occurrence, and they didn’t know how to force me to bond, so I avoided having any children. Others were not so lucky.” She looks at me with haunted eyes, and I feel so much pain coming from her and, funnily enough, compassion. I don’t get a chance to question it, though, before she points at one of the doors. “Open that one.”

I grab the amputated hand and hold it over the sensor. The door opens, and Amanda hurries in. I hear some whispering, and then there’s a shout.

“What? He’s here?”

I go on high alert as a woman with blindingly red hair rushes out of the room. She’s thin in a malnourished way, but her stomach is obscenely round. She is very, very pregnant. Hell, I don’t think I was even that round with the krakens.

She stops and stares at Zeydan, who is frozen, his mouth dropping open in shock. Her eyes literally blaze with fire, I instantly know who this is, and my stomach sinks. Smith has really screwed the pooch. We will be lucky if Earth is unmade. This poor woman. I’m going to go out on a limb and guess that she’s pregnant with an Aaz’axian deity hybrid.

“Sanshia?” Zeydan’s voice breaks as he whispers her name.

The woman bursts into tears and flings herself at my mate. He gathers his sister in his arms and holds her tightly, speaking to her in a language that doesn’t translate for my ears. This is where that last batch of blood came from, I would put my money on it.

“Death is too good for Smith. He will suffer an eternity for this,” I promise out loud before turning to Amanda.

“Thank you,” I tell her, but she just shakes her head sadly.

“Don’t thank me yet.”