Page 69 of Defiance
Novak followed after, turning the entrance to the courtyard to find Sath’s fine tunic bunched up in the hands of a venandi agent. He was resisting, using his height and leg strength to gain leverage, but the man wasn’t trained for a scuffle. He bared his teeth, showing off his fangs in what the hjarna would consider extreme, inappropriate anger.
“Back off,” Charlie demanded. The venandi snapped his mandibles with frustration, but let Sath go. The envoy stared at her in shock, then his eyes shuttered. He lifted his chin to Novak in a wretched, betrayed expression.
“I need to speak with you privately. It’s about Charlie.”
“Charlie who’s standing right here,” she said, smacking her own chest with one hand.
“Not likely,” Sath growled, shoulders hunched.
“Oh, get bloody tossed, you backstabbing sack ofhrk!”
Novak swooped low and grabbed Charlie around the waist just as she was about to lunge. He chuckled, hauling her back.
“Woah there, sunset. I’m guessing he’s here to warn us about the doll.” Novak raised his brow over Charlie’s head,prompting Sath. The hjarna brushed his crest, blinking out of sync in confusion.
“Charlie?” he breathed, hardly able to believe it.
“What were you doing with Caher and Guei, you bloody traitor?” Charlie wriggled in Novak’s grip.
“I—” Sath’s shoulders deflated. “I was trying to protect you, yes?”
Novak felt bitter reality seep back in at his words. He ran his tongue over his teeth, trying to rid himself of the flavor of judgment.
“I thought there was more to you, Sath,” Charlie raged, accent so thick that Novak’s linguitor missed every other word. “Novak isgood.And he’s mine. So go fuck yourself, ya gobshite! I swear I’ll lose the plot if people keep making eyes—”
“From the mob!” Sath yelled over her. “Novak—hm?—was getting pulled, yes, pulled away. I-I didn’t want, nn, for you to get hurt. I told you, yes?” he turned his pleading eyes on the advenan. “I told you that I had her.”
The iron buckshot tearing his insides apart dissipated. Sath had been talking tohim,not Guei? He turned his ears back and gave Charlie one human nod of confirmation, letting go of his hellion slowly until her feet touched the ground again.
“He did,” he said.
“Chairwoman Guei would not allow me to accompany you to the hospital,” Sath sighed. “I waited, yes? Until morning, out here in this courtyard.” He nodded to the manicured stones behind them, his eyes sticking on the bodybags for a brief moment. His marigold cheeks paled slightly, then he blinking the sight away. “I was told to remove myself. That I would be commed. So I paced outside, hm, and when you were discharged you… You werefine.You said Novak scared you, yes, and that you wanted to spawn with me after all.”
Sath swallowed hard. He looked Charlie full in the face, hands limp at his sides in defeat.
“I know my dear friend better than that.”
“Sath…” When Charlie ran for him this time, Novak didn’t try to stop her. She wrapped her arms around Sath’s slim chest, cheek squished against his wrinkled tunic.
“I turned in my resignation last night, yes, and called the press about the fiasco. Your arrest was all over the news feeds,” Sath said to Novak over her head. “What they were saying was—”
“Doesn’t matter,” Novak said, snapping his tail. Sath closed his mouth in understanding. Charlie had been through a lot. She didn’t need public opinion weighing on her shoulders too.
Sath shook his head in disagreement. “It does matter. Or if it doesn’t, I will make it so.” They grinned at each other, and a little of the hjarna’s cool confidence returned. “I like a challenge, yes? Maybe negotiating colony toilets isn’t the best use of my skills.”
The three of them spent the next two sols in the guest riad. Sath was serious about advocating for advenan rights. He dove into the role with relish, booking so many feeds that the Citadel took note. Baella Atarian commed him personally and asked him to provide the council with a proposal.
“Strike while the iron is hot,”she said.
No one questioned Novak when he dumped his bag in Charlie’s room or took her out to eat. The hjarna doctor trembled during her exam, but not because he was holding her hand. He took her vitals and examined the bruises on her arms that looked like long fingerprints. He was one of Ferulis’s people, but grief pulled at his features. Grief and shame.
The Huajile Institute for Xenobiological Studies was one of the oldest institutions in the Union. A crowning jewel for thehjarna, now tarnished beyond repair. The repercussions were staggering. It would take decades to rebuild.
By the next day, all non-essential HIXBS services were frozen. Their hospitals, clinics, and pharmaceutical branches remained intact, but research labs and administrative offices were seized. The leisure cruiser that had been stashed in the Med-Go freighter had been transporting the Imani doll, their first production model. It was an empty shell, ready to download living code. That had been the plan until Guei learned that Charlie was attending instead, forcing her to pick up her last remaining dolls from Huajile on the way to the event.
It was a messy affair. There were four Charlie dolls, but they were in various states of repair. Two failed to upload Charlie’s living code to Guei’s satisfaction. Those were the ones found dead—as opposed to decommissioned—on sub-64. The others were still in their charging docks aboard the cruiser.
Director Caher and Chairwoman Guei were detained, their faces plastered all over the media feeds. Baella Atarian called an immediate motion to remove the chairwoman from her seat on the council and open an investigation. In the weeks after, they learned that Guei had held HIXBS ransom, using her leverage as chairwoman of medical innovation and health access to withhold funding and push for trade contracts with Med-Go, a subsidiary of Rakta Corps. The move would export all care doll fabrication to their facilities in the Outer Rim, creating a legal loophole for the problematic company to exploit in its efforts to return to business in the Union.
