Captivate (Manipulate, Book 2)

Chapter 3

Merith II

Secondary Planet of the Merith Confederation

After the unpleasantness of the space station explosion, Faal returned home from his extended visit to Earth. He had plans to visit Selta, as he had told the Spo general, but first he had business of his own to transact.

Faal of Merith II was generally agreed to be the third most powerful Merith in the galaxy, and an invitation to his home estate on the planet of Merith II was a great honor. It was particularly a pleasure to those who, like Faal himself, considered themselves aficionados of exotic animals. Underneath Faal’s estate was an underground zoo that housed possibly the finest collection of rare and exotic animals in the galaxy. His agents had gathered species from every mapped, and many of the unmapped, sectors of space. He’d even visited the interdicted Velvidian Enclave to retrieve a Crested Raptor before the Velvidian star went nova.

Only the most powerful entities in the galaxy could hope for a visit to his famed underground zoo - and many wondered whether it even existed.

It did exist and it was grossly illegal by Council standards, but knowledge and favors, and occasionally an invitation to visit, had gained him the blind eye of his fellow Council members.

The excellence of his staff made it unnecessary for Faal to visit the zoo more than he wished, but he frequently spent hours amusing himself in its lower levels, particularly with his more intelligent ‘animals.’

On this occasion of his homecoming, after his personal physician confirmed that he had not been injured during the unexpected explosion of the Spo space station, Faal went to see his human.

He had acquired it several years before and had found it a very interesting study. It was a breakable thing, of course, and he’d broken it long ago. Still, he found it an adaptable and valuable addition to his zoo. Indeed, he’d even seen signs of repair in the human during the last few months. All in all, he’d grown a bit fond of it, and was not sorry to be able to tell his human that its species had achieved sentient status during the recent trial.

Of course, Faal could not keep the human as an ‘animal’ in his zoo now that it was part of a recognized sentient species. Even if he did handle the necessary bribes, there would be little value in having a human when they became commonplace. He might have sold it to a less meticulous collector, but the hard value of his human had fallen drastically, now that many humans would be flooding the galaxy. This situation had arisen before, but this time Faal had decided not to dispose of the human as he normally would. He had a code, and the human had earned a better fate than to be put down like any mewling pup.

No, for the first time, Faal planned to release one of his animals.Claire ran out of her cage and slammed the door shut behind her. Faal lay trapped and injured inside, where she’d pinned him to the floor with a felled oak tree.

“How dare you,” Faal said, a cold fury in his voice. “I came to give you good news. I was going to send you back where you came from.”

Claire ignored him. She took a deep breath, could she do this?

Faal glared at her with his one large eye and his beak snapped in anger. “I have rarely been so insulted. I would have set you free.”

“She doesn’t believe you!” Claire said, then she blinked and corrected herself. “I don’t believe you!”

Faal’s one-eyed gaze seemed to hold her in place. “Do you know what sector you’re in? Do know what planet you’re on? You know nothing, human. You won’t make it off the grounds.” He groaned in pain and closed his large eye. When he broke eye contact, Claire found the courage to move again. She’d been planning this escape for months, while Faal was gone, and she’d decided that she had to do it the first chance she got. Otherwise he might have found her hoarded supplies... or she might have lost her nerve.