Page 57 of Relyn
Those words sent the three in different directions quickly enough. Relyn sent the crate into the hatch tunnel and once out of sight of any prying eyes, formed back into himself.
Bright was there at the other end to pull the crate into the ship and secure it. Relyn closed the hatch door and released the tunnel. Bright let momentum float them away and then the pair headed to the cockpit.
“That was easy,” Relyn said. Too easy, in his opinion, but hopefully they’d caused enough conflict and confusion to give them a head start on any response by Rutra.
Relyn watched Bright key in the coordinates to Alana’s rendezvous. He’d come back and check later to make sure they were still going in the right direction, but first priority was to inspect the crate before they got too far away to make sure that Rutra hadn’t messed with it and then found a way to reforge the seal.
Relyn also didn’t want to deliver Alana anything that was going to be too dangerous. If it was, once Nora was safe, they’d have to go about getting it back.
He headed back to the cargo hold with Bright close on his heels. Wendy and Grom appeared as well.
“You did a good job, Grom,” Relyn said. “You were right. Rutra was drunk off his ass and didn’t notice a thing. He might have some trouble with his crew when he wakes up, but he seems to be able to handle himself.”
Grom seemed to enjoy the praise. Relyn scanned the crate, examining the seal code in great detail. As far as he could tell, it remained the same, and had yet to be opened.
“It might have a tamper proof mechanism,” Bright warned.
“I know. I’m just going to give it one more scan, and I think…” Relyn said as he ran his fingers over the panel. Verycautiously he focused and forced some of his essence into the thin crack of the case. Inside, he explored around, and found the wires that powered it. With a deft twist, he dislocated them and the box hissed its release clamps. He pulled back his hand, incorporating himself back into form and opened the crate. The front of it slid back into the adjoining sides, revealing three tall black cylinders.
“How’d you do that?” Bright asked.
“Talent,” he said, continuing to inspect the contents. They were cryostasis chambers that Relyn recognized as a Suhlik design. He ran his com over the control panel of the closest one.
“They are too small to contain people,” Bright said.
“What are they?” Wendy asked, peering around Bright.
“They are stasis pods, or storage. They can hold people or living tissue or specimens indefinitely. There is some loss, and coming out of stasis is a bitch but the Suhlik never worried much about the comfort of their experiments,” Bright said. “I was crammed into something like this, and when I woke up, my planet and everything I had known was dead and lost.”
Relyn read the contents of the cylinders and then had to reread it again. Alana’s desire for it began to make sense.
“It’s Etlonian,” Relyn said. “At least this one is.” He scanned the second one.
Bright reached in and did her own scan. Her eyes got wider as she read, her face more intense.
“You said it was too small for a person. Is it a child?” Wendy asked.
“No,” Bright said. “It’s thousands of children. Embryos. Unaltered Etlonian embryos.” She was practically whispering. “With this we could bring back Etlon. The real Etlon.”
Relyn’s second scan revealed not just embryos, but sperm. He suspected the third would be eggs. “Somehow Alana got the leftovers from the Suhlik experiments.”
“What the hell is she going to do with them? It’s not like she can have a million babies herself,” Wendy said.
“I don’t think she’s thought that far ahead,” Bright said. “She’s got it, and she has enough resources to start a breeding program full of compatible women that she’s purchased through the right channels. That’s what all the women have been for.”
“You mean slaves? Breeding slaves?” Wendy said.
“We can’t let her have this,” Bright said. Relyn agreed. It was a precious resource that had to be carefully and wisely used to bring them back from the edge of extinction. It could not be given to a woman who would traitorously deal with Suhlik to get what she wanted. Relyn paused for a moment.
“Alana made the deal to get this from the Suhlik. She endangered many lives to do so, but this prize, this prize,” Relyn faltered.
“Honestly, if I had known, there would have been lines that I would have crossed too,” Bright said.
“We can’t give this to Alana,” Relyn said, knowing what that might mean for Nora. If they switched the package out, Alana was just spiteful enough to kill her and burn everything to the ground to get what she wanted.
Bright turned and went back to the cockpit. Relyn followed her, trying to tell himself it wasn’t from a lack of trust. She was opening up a com line.
“You should be out of com range by now,” a female voice came on the line.
