Spaced Out

Guns. Lots Of Guns.

Long, black sheathed fingers tapped brassy slats partitioning the first and middle cells. Vlex had his back to the belly's entrance. The Utori stared into Lily's old pen. Muscles in his jaw tensed and released.

Great, Lily thought. I'll slip in and out and the end.

The feeder slot was next to the lock interface. Lily tip toed to the drawer and inched it open.

"If I gave you advice would you take it?" At Vlex's rasp, Lily's back went exclamation point straight. She squeezed the nutration bar.

"Um..."

Faster than she tracked, Vlex whirled from the partition to the cell door. An arm shot through the slats. His hand clamped her wrist before she squeaked the tiniest protest. She yanked against him.

"You'll hurt yourself." Words slithered like wet things from the dark cave of Vlex's chest.

"You really have to let me go. We're breaking all the rules right now."

"Rules?"

"No talking, touching, or lingering. I don't want your Utori germs and I don't want to get doctor Puu in trouble."

"Doctor Puu...ah, yes. The Pashmi."

"Take your food and get off."

"You don't understand your situation. We need each other. I can get you home."

That jerked up Lily's head. Struggles ceased. "You can?"

Rubbery fingers stroked the sensitive crease of skin at the crook of her elbow. "I can."

Lily's belly fluttered. Carnal muscles deep inside her clenched.

"Stop that." She jostled her arm.

"Not yet. You opened my storage globe."

Groaning, Lily said, "I've heard enough about that thing from the captain."

"The globe and its contents do not belong to Vortrand. They belong to me. If you are alive, then the implantation must have been successful. That means you are Bralian."

"Sixty-five percent of me."

"Incredible." Vlex massaged her palm, stared at it as thought he couldn't quite believe she was real. "Do you understand what's embedded in your mind?"

"A bunch of data about Bralians only Bralians can access."

Vlex snorted laughter. "Is that what Vortrand told you?" At Lily's dismal expression he continued. "You are new to this larger universe. I cannot fault your trust of whatever authority figure happened your way. He did tell you half of the truth. There is Bralian data in your mind because there are Bralian memories in your mind."

Lily's mouth opened and shut. Opened and shut again. Memories were different than movies. Memories contained emotions. Memories made up identity. She shrugged off her shock.

"So what? The captain probably didn't want me to freak out over a few memories."

A finger wagged at her. "Not a few memories. The total life experience of one Bralian woman. The daughter of a great scientist."

All of another person's memories? Lily swallowed. That's why she lost herself when she tapped into them. Because she wasn't herself. What stopped that other identity from taking over?

"I expect Vortrand is working on ways to extract the information."

Pursing her lips, Lily cast her eyes to her feet.

"I thought so." Vlex resumed the devilish stroking of her arm. "Though what method he believes he can employ before neural bleed sets in without a ceive is a mystery to me."

Lily squirmed. Reesa used that term neural bleed. The captain hadn't let his sister explain what she meant.

"What's neural bleed?"

"The implanted memories transfer as a tight packet. In your mind, there's a dense seed of visual and sensory data. As the seed roots in your brain, the memories will expand and erode your own. You'll likely spend the rest of your life sucked into recollection fugues, wandering about as a jibbering half-person."

Ultra wide eyes raised Lily's brows.

"Of course, you needn't worry about neural bleed if you release me." Vlex smiled his bear trap smile. "The Xidian Hierarchy has access to a ceive. It can cull the memories from your mind in less than a turn without surgery. Once your mind is out of danger I can return you to your baseworld."

"You know where it is?" The question squeaked from Lily's mouth.

"With enough intel, there are ways to pinpoint its location in zerospace."

Lily narrowed her eyes. "And the Utori enslaving and raping the Bralians, was that a half-truth from the captain too?"

Vlex's grin faded. "That was the whole truth. I cannot deny the atrocities my ancestors committed. The Utori have evolved over the last thousand successions. Our eye no longer wanders to expansion. We nurture our protectorate worlds and enrich what we already possess." He gave her hand a reassuring squeeze. "The Verakian long for universal dominion. If they discover your baseworld they will conquer and claim it. The Utori can protect it. Release me. I will protect you from Vortrand."

The captain said the same thing about the Utori's intentions for Earth. Was anyone telling the whole truth?

"All for the low, low price of what's in my head."

"As long as the memory seed isn't a threat to you and Vortrand never gets it, I don't care what becomes of the data. The secrets it contains should never be used practically by anyone. My mission is to safeguard those secrets, therefore, safeguarding you has become my mission. You are in danger as long as you remain here. All you have to do is let me out of this cage."

"How do I—"

"Would someone like to tell me what the fuck is going on here?"

The barked question cut Lily off. She spun. Captain Vortrand's lean body blocked the belly's entrance. An enormous pistol he gripped pointed at them, its barrel a big, black period terminating a very final sentence.