Page 7 of Leviathan

"The Shek’invitali are a matriarchal species and have a misandric culture as well as a robust military force," I said. "They are significantly more likely to defend your well-being with aggressive force than Alliance Intelligence. It is made up of all its member species, and your existence is a threat to a major member. The choice is yours, but if I were you, I'd go to the enemy of your enemy, not the ally."

"So you're recommending I go to the Shek’invitali Queens instead because you think they will treat me better?" she asked. "What about your contract?"

"My mission parameters are fulfilled either way," I said. "I did not agree to transport living beings to the Alliance Intelligence, just information. I would not agree to a contract that required me to transport living beings to a destination against their will. I have also made a separate agreement with you to transport you wherever you would like to go. I have provided a write-up of our agreement on a handheld that is in the chambers I have set up for you."

She held out the data storage device to my drone.

I took it from her and transferred it over to my neurofilaments, using them to transport it to the room where I had set up a contained environment in case it was loaded up with a virus or a self-destruct mechanism.

"Show me to my chambers, please," she said.

I turned the drone and led her to her new home.

THREE

MARIA

When I woke, the room was dark, I was warm, and there was a soft blanket over me, tucked all the way up to my chin, all things that caused my sleepy mind to spin with confusion. I'd gotten so used to waking up on a hard surface, slightly chilled, that the feeling of being comfortable was startling. I opened my eyes, and a soft light filled the room, circling around the bottom edge of the far wall, gradually increasing in brightness until the room held a warm, rosy hue of sunrise.

I was in a large, soft bed, in a room with an oval window looking out into a dark sea of stars.

"Lyrien," I murmured, the events of the previous day coming back to me in a sudden flash of relief. He had led me to the room, and at the sight of the bed, I immediately went to lie down in it, even though that weird goo had been dripping off me the entire walk to the room. I must have been exhausted. I'd spent every night cycle on the station, crawling around in the tubes, sleeping during the daylight hours when I could, only to be awoken to be brought to the lab to be put under again. Whatever they did to me, they did while I was unconscious, but when I woke from it, I never felt rested.

For the first time in a long time, I felt rested.

I'd gotten away. I was safe.

There was a subtle terror behind the comfort of those thoughts, the fear that maybe I was wrong, maybe this was another experiment, and the moment that I really leaned into it and trusted it, they would take it all away.

"Did you rest well, Maria?" Lyrien's voice was rich and dark, soothing, but also rather close. It was deep and masculine-sounding to me, and my mind automatically went with that classification. "You slept for a long time. We have left the station behind and are currently on a course for Shek’invitali-controlled space."

The last time I felt this well rested had been back on Earth.

"Would you be able to take me to my home planet?" I asked. "To Earth?"

"I don't currently know the location of your home planet," he said. "But the Shek’invitali might have that data."

His voice still sounded so close to me.

"How do you do that?" I asked. "You sound like you're right next to me in bed."

"You are inside me," he said. "I can create and place vocal emitters anywhere. If it makes you more comfortable, I can sound as if I am across the room."

His voice shifted as he spoke, moving across the room.

"Is that the same with cameras?" I asked.

"What I have is not quite the same thing as a camera, but yes, I can move my optics anywhere inside of me," he said.

"Could you not?" I asked, pulling the blanket tighter around me.

"Will you explain further?" he asked. "I am uncertain as to what your question means specifically."

I took a deep breath.

Sometimes it felt hard to explain the things that made me feel uncomfortable, but Lyrien didn't press me. It made sense. He was some sort of alien artificial intelligence after all. He didn't have impatience or emotional reactions that would bog him down and cause him to insist I answer right away. He could be doing a million other things while he waited for my response, never losing the thread of our conversation. The fact that I didn't have to worry about him and his reactions made it a little easier to sort through my mind to find the right words for the moment.

"I haven't had privacy since I was kidnapped," I said. "And the thought of having you watch me while I sleep makes me uncomfortable."