1
“I thought these B’Kaar were the top dogs when it came to technology?” Jay Stephens asked, looking around the small training hall with interest. They were surrounded by groups of cyber warriors, training both in and out of their kasivar exosuits.
“They are,” Cade replied as he rolled his shoulders and took up a guard stance.
Jay might be human, but in the time they’d been training together, Cade had learned to respect the other male’s skillset. “Why? Is that a problem?”
Jay shook his head, snapping back to business and focusing on Cade with an intensity that said bruises would be found in his near future. It didn’t matter. They wouldn’t last long anyway. They never did on him. Even for his species, he was tough.
“No, no problem. I was just wondering why this ship looks like every other Lathar vessel I’ve been on.”
Cade didn’t take his focus off the Terran to look around. He knew what he’d see. Dozens of cyber warriors, all trying to ignore the fact that he existed. Which was pretty impressive considering they were also looking at him like he was the second coming of the Tanel. But then, given his bloodlines, that wasn’t entirely surprising. No one alive had ever seen a member of the Tanel. The vicious, warlike race had been wiped out by the first emperor, Kayan Vorr, but the Lathar had a long memory and all of Kayan’s descendants had been tarred with his "crimes."
“I wouldn’t know,” he admitted in a low grunt as he circled the human. “I’ve only ever been on this ship. Well, apart from the Skev.” He referred to the small jump ship they’d used to escape his planet as it was destroyed.
Jay stopped right in front of him, his guard down and his jaw slack. “What? Seriously? I thought you guys all had to serve on ships as part of your army or whatever you call it?”
“Not all of us have the right temperament to be imperial warriors,” he said with a shrug and threw a punch at Jay’s ribs.
The human easily blocked the blow, moving instinctively. It was impressive. Although he knew Jay had been a highly trained warrior in the human empire, something else had to be going on. Movement like that didn’t come from training. It came from deep within… from the primal part of the soul.
If he didn’t miss his guess, Jay was just as much of a predator as he was, just in a different way—one that he also kept hidden, similar to the way Cade hid his talents. Easily done, when revealing them could result in his summary execution, especially with so many trigger-happy cyber warriors in the room.
“What is that supposed to mean?”
Cade grunted, twisting to bring his elbow down to block a vicious roundhouse kick to his side. Like the best warriors, Jay fought without signals, leaving Cade only split seconds to react to anything the human threw at him.
It was exhilarating, and the best fun he’d had in years. No one back home would fight him, not properly anyway. They all knew what he was and what he was capable of. Spoilsports.
“Cade Vorr. I need a sample from you.”
Every muscle in Cade’s body went rigid at the voice behind him. Forcing himself to relax, he turned, schooling his features to a wide smile over a blank canvas as he greeted the massive B’Kaar warrior behind them.
“Berrick.”
Even without his suit, Berrick B’Kaar was a monster of a male. Tall and broad shouldered, he was easily as big as Vaix, the largest Vorr in Cade’s village… Correction, ex-village. The cabals' orbital weapon had rendered it all to so much char and ash. A lifetime, and lives, lost because some malfunctioning piece of technology had held a grudge for centuries.
Even without his suit, Berrick was huge. In it… Yeah, the male was a draanthing army all on his own.
“You ain’t gonna make him piss in a bottle out here. Are you?” Jay cut in, making the B’Kaar frown in confusion. “Because I don’t need to see alien junk this time of a morning. Or like… ever.”
“Why would I need his waste products? I need to analyze his DNA, not study what he drank last week…”
The banter between the two gave Cade the few seconds he needed to gather himself.
“Why? You already have my genetic information from the standardized tests.” He kept his body language loose and unconcerned as he met the B’Kaar’s gaze with a level one of his own. “That should give you a complete map of my DNA.”
All Lathar were required to undergo testing shortly before the end of childhood. It was mostly to ensure they didn’t carry any genetic mutations, especially given the fact that their species had been heavily modifying their own code for generations. These days it was mostly to check for the Izaean mutation.
If it showed up for any youth, they were packed off to Parac’Norr so they could be trained correctly. No one wanted to deal with a berserker going into blood rage unexpectedly.
Like everyone else, he’d taken the standard tests, and he hadn’t flagged up for the Izaean strain. He hadn’t expected to. No Vorr had ever displayed the berserker mutation. But those tests were simple and only looked for certain specific genetic markers.
“We only have the baselevel on file for you. I’m going to need more detail than that.”
Berrick's voice was a deep rasp that sounded like he’d had an argument with a garrotte and lost. But there were no scars over his throat. Nothing that would indicate he had sustained an injury, not even the micro-thin scars left by some of the lower-level, less-experienced Latharian healers.
Of course that didn’t mean much. He was second-in-command of a clan, so he would have access to some of the best healers in the empire. But surely they would have taken care of any internal damage at the same time they’d healed the external?
“I’m busy training,” he argued, indicating Jay. As the only two non-B’Kaar aboard, he and the human had grown closer during the long journey back to Jay’s home planet. He wasn’t about to cut his friend off, just for the cyber warrior's trallshit tests. “I’ll come down for a scan later.”
Given enough time to meditate, he could ensure that anything he didn’t want to show up on the scan would remain hidden. He didn’t precisely know how it worked, just that it did. The trick had been handed down through generations of Vorr to evade the empire’s tests. If they knew exactly what was hiding on the Vorr planets, the response would make the cabal weapon look like a walk in the park.
Berrick shook his head and moved his hand. In it he held a blood collection tube.
Cade froze in surprise. He’d only ever seen one on a historical recording. It was strange to see, especially considering that the B’Kaar prided themselves on being the most technologically advanced of all the Lathar clans. Surely they had gone beyond stabbing people with sharp objects to get what they needed?
“We need more data than the scans will give us,” he said, stepping forward.
The hackles on the back of Cade’s neck rose and he stepped back. Berrick’s bushy eyebrows disappeared into his hairline.
“What’s the matter, kid? It’s only a little prick. Perfectly safe,” he said, totally misreading the reason for Cade’s apprehension.
“That’s what she said.” Jay grinned, one shoulder resting against a nearby wall as he watched the interplay. Cade had noticed the human did that whenever he could; slouched to minimize his height and rounded his shoulders to disguise their width.