Page 26 of Possessed By the Dragon Alien
“Everything. Start with the recent files.”
The screen highlighted the first document. “Facility Status Reports,” the voice announced, then began reading lists of Axis installations across the quadrant. Mining operations. Manufacturing centers. Military bases. And prisons. So many prisons.
Her breath caught when the voice reached a familiar designation: “Terian Penal Colony 5-11B.”
“Stop,” she said. “Tell me more about that one.”
The interface obligingly opened the file. “Penal Colony 5-11B Status Report,” the voice began, then launched into clinical details. Population numbers. Resource extraction quotas. Security assessments. But buried in the bureaucratic language, she heard hints of something more. References to “destabilization events.” “Communication blackouts.” “Overseer noncompliance.”
The settlements were in rebellion. Just as the voices on the device had suggested.
“Show me older reports about this colony,” she said.
The voice scrolled back through cycles of data, painting a different picture. For countless periods, Colony 5-11B had been listed as “fully compliant.” A model facility where prisonersworked without resistance and quotas were consistently met. What had changed?
“What other files can you access?” she asked.
“Searching available recent documents,” the voice replied. “Recently sent files from Prime Watcher Rien: Species Historical Archives—Restricted Access for High Chancellor Madrian only. Warning: This file is encrypted and cannot be viewed on any other device.”
“I understand. Can you open it, please?”What was she doing?It wasn’t as if the computer would respond better to nice manners.
“Complying.”
The first entries made her hands shake as the synthetic voice read them aloud.
“Planet Teria. Status: Captured. Subterranean resources removed. Current conditions: Uninhabited due topsiakradiation. Population at time of conquest: 847,000. Current population estimate: 6,133. Location: Penal Colony 5-11B and other scattered installations.”
Six thousand.Out of nearly a million people. The number hit her like a physical blow. Her species hadn’t just been conquered—they’d been systematically eliminated.
“Show me images,” she whispered.
The screen filled with pictures that made her chest ache. Teria as it had been. Rolling green hills dotted with crystalline cities. Orbital gardens that spiraled around the planet like jeweled rings. Her people in their natural environment, hair flowing in brilliant colors, skin marked with the golden freckles that caught starlight.
They’d been beautiful. Free. Advanced.
Now they were numbers in fields, working until they died.
“Read me the entry on Zarux,” she said, dreading what she might hear.
“Planet Zarux. Status: Captured. Population at time of conquest: 1.2 million. Current population estimate: Unknown. Notes: Royal family eliminated. Six royal offspring integrated into Axis command structure during infancy. Four remain in Axis command.”
The royal family.Madrian’s family, if Rien’s information was true. His parents, killed. His siblings…
She leaned back, thinking about Settlement 112-1’s overseer. She’d never learned his name, or anything about him. The overseer was just the overseer. He’d been feared and worshipped, and avoided at all costs. But the first thing she remembered thinking about Madrian was how similar his eyes were to the overseer’s. If four of the royal offspring remained in Axis command, then the overseer could be one of Madrian’s brothers. Had Madrian just learned that by reading this entry, or had he known it all along?
The voice continued reading details that filled her with growing horror. The systematic destruction of two entire civilizations. The deliberate separation of species that had once been allies. Whose planets had shared an orbit and had been integrated for hundreds of thousands ofmig-cycles.
“Are there more files about Terians and Zaruxians?” she asked.
“Searching… Found: Project classification. The Zaruxian Severance Protocol.”
Her blood ran cold. “Read it.”
“Project Status: Complete. Objective: Eliminate inherited Zaruxian emotions and ethics. Method: Intense physical training; isolation; memory suppression, including implantation of correction module in brain. Results: 99.7% success rate. Note: Zaruxians’ susceptibility to Terian influence can be severed by repeated use of correction module, as seen in test case: Ellion. But best practice is to keep species separated.”
The clinical language made her sick.They’d known.The Axis had known about the connection between the two species and had systematically worked to destroy it.
“Continue reading,” she said, though every word felt like a knife.
