Page 43 of My Human Wife

I hesitate before I hit initiate. I may die. This is a prototype. Maybe it’s not too late.Would Kamos forgive me if I stayed?I consider this for half a second.

No, what’s wrong with me?I can’t stay. I want my freedom even if I die trying.

I hear the guards enter the armory yelling for me. “Lara, where are you? You’ve been a naughty little pet! Come out come out wherever you are. You must be punished you devilish little human.”

I take a deep breath and punch the engage button.

Pooooofffff. My molecules are separating into a thousand pieces and there’s nothing. I’m weightless. There’s nothing but black. Then nothing but light. Suddenly I take a deep breath and I can feel my heartbeat again. My eyes flicker and I open my eyes. I’m somewhere. I don’t see anyone though. I’m alone in a modern room.

The helmet only tells me I’ve arrived.

My bracelet on my left wrist begins to beep and I scramble to try to get it off, but it’s too late it’s injected me with poison. I forgot about this. I can’t die now.

I check the door. I’m locked in.

I’m trapped and I’m going to die from poison unless Kamos’s men come for me and give me the antidote.How could I be so stupid?

While trying to figure out a way out of the room, one side of the room lights up with Kamos’s face. “Lara I’m disappointed that my first minister was correct. Did you really think I’d keep a teleportation suit open for anyone? Of course it was programmed to go to a holding cell.”

Before I can answer him, the door breaks down and Gael is there. He looks like a dream he’s so handsome dressed in black armor. He whips out a syringe and says, “It’s the antidote, come here.” I run into his arms but he only embraces me for a second before plunging the medicine into my arm. “We’re in the middle of a bit of a skirmish. Stand behind me.”

But suddenly the shooting stops and Kamos addresses Gael. “Gael the Returner, is she really your wife?”

I feel like Kamos has just asked the one question in the entire universe that I really want to know too. And it’s deadly silent as we wait for an answer.

“Lara from Earth is my legal wife.”

Kamos is so still on the screen I think the connection has frozen but then he says, “If you two would rather sacrifice yourselves and risk your own happiness for human strangers than you must be rewarded. The goddesses will decide your fate.”

“What?” I say trying to understand what Kamos meant, but Gael doesn’t say anything. Instead he grabs the helmet to the teleportation suit and my hand and we run. It reminds me of when he ran with me trying to escape the Fertility Goddess’s Temple. “I hope this time we make it out.”

As we approach some Terra Ka members Gael begins shouting at them. “We have a seven second reprieve! Go! Go! Go! We have the suit! Go!” His men don’t hesitate and begin running. It’s notlong before we enter his stealth transport and we’re on our way back to theSisu. A couple shots are fired at us but miss the cloaked transport.

I can’t believe this is real.Did I really escape? Or am I dead without my flash of memories?I look around at the men in the transport. I recognize most of them and if this were a dream I don’t think I could conjure up these faces some of which I only saw a few times. I look back through the transport window, “What was that place?”

“Kamos’s own private prison,” one of the Terra Ka men explains. “We were informed the suit was programmed to go there no matter what coordinates were entered.”

“But how did we get away? What did Kamos mean when he said the goddesses would decide our fate?”

“That we had seven seconds before he killed us. It’s from an Imperial myth about lovers who sacrificed themselves for the greater good.”

“Is that why he’s not in pursuit now?”

“No. He’s not prepared now, but he knows who’s taken his suit. He won’t give up that easily.”

“He’ll torture and kill me. I killed some people when I escaped,” I confess.

“Don’t worry,” Seo says from across the transport. “You’re probably going to die a free woman. Now if you don’t mind please hand me the suit. I’m going to reprogram it so we can use it right away. We’ve men waiting to free everyone from an Imperial Pet Compound right now. We’re going to savehundreds all thanks to you. And they’ll be returned to Earth before their window of opportunity closes. Well done, Lara.”

I want to accept his praise but it bounces off of me. I don’t know why. Perhaps because of the lives I took in my pursuit of the suit or all the sexual things I did. So I say nothing but I take off the suit in the cramped quarters of the transport. What I didn’t expect is for all the Imperial men to look the other way as I did it. It is like night and day with how these Imperials think of me as opposed to those in Kamos’s palace. I hand Seo the suit and sit back down naked, my skin sticking against the seat. Gael immediately takes off his jacket and hands it to me. It’s so large it falls down to my thighs. Then I ask, “What’s that supposed to mean? ‘I’ll die a free woman.’”

Gael answers me in English, “The IGC is after you for my crimes. The nuns from the Fertility Temple logged our marriage and Kamos has been hit with numerous fines for buying a free citizen at Gala. It’s made a lot of headlines. It proves that humans are actually free and the IGC is going to begin enforcing the law to a certain degree. Lara, you’re the first human to be recognized as a galactic citizen.”

I let those words sink in. “Say that last part again.”

Gael puts his hand over mine. “You’re the first human to be recognized as a free galactic citizen. Not only did you steal the teleportation suit you’ve begun a real movement. The IGC has become fractured with those who want to uphold the law and those who want to continue to allow human trafficking. This is better than we ever hoped all because you misunderstood the Uru phrase of ‘choosing’ someone.”

I was happy until his last sentence brought me down a bit. I give him a fake half smile. Of course I’m more than pleased with thisoutcome but the truth is right now all I want is Gael to tell me he loves me. I catch his gaze and wait. He doesn’t say anything so I say, “So Kamos wasn’t lying?”

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