The Last Atonian

Chapter 7:

The explosion rocked the entirety of the slave ship. Even Veerna, in her semi-conscious state, heard and felt it, strapped down to a table. The man holding the burning hot brand in his hands turned to the other man. "Rulon's at the fireworks again," he commented.

"Not the first time," the other man agreed.

Veerna struggled against the straps around her mouth, forehead, chest, arms, abdomen, legs, knees, and ankles. Rulon's men were well-trained in the art of branding. With the straps placed at just the right point, it disabled Veerna's ability to even move at all while they did their grisly work. She wished the man with the brand hadn't pulled it away before he'd been finished. It hurt the most in the seconds after he placed it against the skin on her exposed neck.

The brander shrugged and sighed. "Usually puts him in a good mood when he starts blowing stuff up," he noted. "Better for the rest of us. With the Federation brats, the Atonian, and Veerna Vold, Rulon's bound to give us a big part of the profits. We'll all be wealthy."

Veerna wished she could spit at him, but the pain was moving up and down throughout her whole body. Pain was her whole existence now. The smell of burning flesh assailed her nostrils, constantly reminding her that it was her own skin roasting. She had never felt pain so bad.

The man lowered the brand against her neck again, and against her will, screams of agony were torn free, piercing even through the strap wrapped around her mouth.

. . . . . . . . . .

Xander inhaled sharply when the explosion rocked the ship. Suzan was clinging to his hand, her face pale, but she looked nowhere near as bad as Yulia. The last Atonian had a gloved hand over her mouth, her eyes wide and filled with tears. Xander knelt in front of her, motioning for Suzan to stop in the empty corridor they'd been creeping down. "It's gonna be okay," he told her. "I need you to be strong for me, okay? We've got a long way to go."

Yulia sniffled, tears streaming down her cheeks. "I ... I'm not strong."

"You're the last survivor of a plague that decimated the rest of your race," Suzan said aloofly. "You are strong."

Still crying, Yulia shook her head. "I woke up—there was no one there. I looked around, I searched for my parents ... my siblings ... they were dead, all of them. All over the city, bodies, nobody responding to my cries for help. The ground was cracking apart beneath me ..." Her voice was haunted, her words jumbling together. From the dazed expression on her face, Xander wasn't even sure she was still conscious. "My whole planet, disappearing beneath my feet. I was going to die. I screamed, I cried, I begged for someone to come and save me. Nobody came. As the buildings collapsed around me, a ship finally came. But they were slavers, they took me, and ... and ..." The girl broke off, sobbing hysterically.

Xander looked at Suzan helplessly. "I'd guess she has waking nightmares, remembering her past," his sister supplied. "This is probably one of them. Maybe activated by the stress? Who knows. It'd be Don who'd help."

Xander looked at his feet at the mention of Don. What he wouldn't give to have the psychologist there to help Yulia ... he'd know just what to say to the girl. However, wishing was useless, since Don was dead. Pushing aside his grief over his friend, Xander laid a hand on Yulia's shoulder. The girl flinched and looked up at him. "Listen to me, Yulia," he said quietly. "Do you know what they call me, here in the Federation? I'm the human lie-detector. Big lies or little lies, I can tell whenever someone's fibbing or trying to slip something by me. Do you know what I've found out, being able to tell when someone's lying? That people do it a lot. Whether it's intentionally to hide a big secret or accidentally to spare someone's feelings, lies are told all the time. It's not okay for me. The truth is not something that should be used sparingly. It should be treated with the utmost care and respect. So, Yulia, on the honor of a man who despises lies, I swear to protect you to the best of my ability. Do you trust me, Yulia Threden, last of the Atonians?"