“Make sure that someone leaks the information about this Empire to the Shara Daim, location and basic knowledge only. But don’t make it obvious,” Hanaru added.
“You want to point them at each other,” Ubvaru sent.
“I doubt that it will come to war; there is a connection between them. But it will make matters between them tense, especially since they kidnapped a Dai Sha. It will keep them occupied long enough for us to put things into place, get our fleets ready. And ensure that they do not unite against us anytime soon,” sent Hanaru, Weaver of the Erasi.
Chapter Forty
September; Year 54 of the Empire – Veritas
Adrian exited the med bay, where he had been checking up on Aileen. She was still asleep and in the tank, having her hand rebuilt. It would take a few more days, but it would be as good as new. He made his way towards the room they had transformed into a holding cell for the Shara Daim. She was still drugged and unconscious. He’d had the device that drained energy made, and it was now piercing through her skin and into the Nursha, draining everything that the organ attempted to store. He’d had a similar device put on him when he went through the augmentation to prevent him from unconsciously using vitakinesis and healing himself, hampering the process.
He reached the room, and saw Akash and Sora sitting in front of it. They had taken it upon themselves to guard the room. Akash had patches over two of his eyes, it would be a few days before he could use them again. And he still had problems with dizzines from the battle. Adrian motioned for the Nel guards, and they let him inside, wolions following. The only person inside was the Shara Daim, restrained on a bed angled upright at about 60 degrees.
She was dressed in one of the Empire’s black skin-suits, which was almost the same color as her skin, making it seem like it was actually her skin. They’d had to destroy her suit in order to get it off, and she had had nothing beneath it. The clothing she was dressed in now hugged her body tightly, revealing every curve and muscle of her body. Every single muscle was defined, but they weren’t bulky like those of a weightlifter. She was a big woman, tall and stocky, but still clearly had feminine features.
He took a moment to study her more closely. Her face looked hard, her features slightly different than those of humans or Nel, and was yet somehow exotically beautiful. She had eyebrows and eyelashes, unlike the Nel, who only had hair on the top of their head. Her lips were of a lighter shade than her skin, and her ear shells had a different shape. Other than that, she could pass for a human, more so than a Nel, whose gray skin color, tails, and claws made them stand out immediately. Her body was exactly like that of a human, no tail or claws, except that her feet had four toes instead of five.
When they’d fought, she had had the translating device on her temple, so after testing it Adrian had it put back on her head so that they could speak without telepathy.
Adrian walked over to her and pressed an injection gun to her neck, injecting the contents. Then he stepped back and waited. Slowly, she started moving, waking up. As she woke up, her eyes opened and looked around her. First she noticed her restraints, and then as she turned her head upwards, she noticed Sora, Akash, and finally him. The ‘whites’ of her eyes were all black; her iris was white surrounding a black pupil.
She watched him, all the while testing her restraints. He saw her muscles bulge as she tried to move. Then he saw her eyes widen for a single instant, and she lowered her head and looked at her shoulder, where the device that drained her energy was.
Adrian remained silent and watched her. He could see her thinking, evaluating her options. And soon enough, she came to the conclusion that there was nothing she could do. She turned back to him.
“You have doomed yourself, Human. You have taken a Dai Sha of the Shara Daim. Your death will not be swift. My ships will find you and free me,” she said in a melodic voice.
Adrian gazed at her unfazed. “I could say the same thing to you. You have attacked a Lord Sentinel of the Empire. The sentence for that crime is severe as well,” Adrian said in a patronizing tone.
Her face twitched, and she leaned her head forward as far as her constraints allowed her to. “Are you mocking me?” she whispered slowly.
Adrian mimicked her move, leaning down so that their faces almost touched, and whispered, “Yes, I am mocking you.”
He saw her outrage. Her face twisted, and she struggled at her restraints trying to reach him, but was unable to move any closer. Adrian remained where he was, looking at her.
“And your ships have found us; they were unsuccessful in their endeavor of freeing you. And their threats were empty,” Adrian said.
She calmed and watched him hatefully. “How long was I unconscious for?” she demanded.
Adrian tilted his head, trying to decide whether to tell her or not.
“About twenty days,” he said. The translator on her temple would make her hear her own measuring units.
He saw her surprise at that. She had really thought that her people would find her quickly.
“Now, I would like to ask you a few questions,” Adrian said.
“Better that you release me now. I might be merciful,” she said.
“I guess that means you are not going to answer. Very well, I will speak, and you chime in if you have something to add,” Adrian said, and started walking around her.
“You are of the Shara Daim, you hold a title Dai Sha. Which is apparently a big deal,” Adrian started. Her eyes followed him until he went behind her, and then continued when he emerged on the other side. “You knew that my people were called human, and you wanted something from me. I can’t imagine what that could be, but no matter. I assume that you found out about my kind from the Ra’a’zani; you have been at war with them. You either encountered those that had been taken as slaves, or you found mention of us in their data. Either way, that doesn’t matter either,” he said.
The Shara Daim remained quiet.
“What I can’t figure out is why would you try to take me? I mean, you could have just asked to meet with me, and I would have accepted. But then you attacked me once you heard me mention Axull Darr,” Adrian continued. “That means that you know everything. You have the Sha; your people must’ve heard the beacon and gained all the knowledge inside the sphere.”
Her face hardened, but she still didn’t comment.
“But why attack me because of that? You know that we are descended from the same race. And what possible information could I possess that you don’t already have?”
She glared at him and spoke, “You did not have the Sha when the Ra’a’zani conquered your world. You wouldn’t have become their slaves if you had had the knowledge. And their records say that you were bound to your home system. Did you get the Sha after?” she asked.
“After the Ra’a’zani conquered our homeworld?” Adrian asked. “Well, in a way, we did. We weren’t bound to a single world when the Ra’a’zani came, though; a part of our race had a colony far away. Once we received a message from those enslaved, we came back and defeated the Ra’a’zani. We didn’t get the Sha until recently.”
“You defeated them without technology from the People and the Sha?” she asked doubtfully.
“Yes. We did get access to the sphere after, but not because of the Sha, nor did we find the one on our homeworld. We encountered the third race that Axull Darr created. They had the device, but they too didn’t have the Sha; they discovered the sphere by accident. Then I awoke the trigger that Axull Darr placed in our DNA and gained the Sha. Now we have started triggering the change in others of my people, newborns and adults alike,” Adrian explained. It was not like any of that was a secret, a search on any of the Empire’s nets would have allowed her to learn about the Nel and human history, and he wanted to know why she had attacked him, not go to war with her people. He figured that it was a misunderstanding, and he planned on clearing everything up before he sent her back.