Copyright 2024 – Daemon D. Hart
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The Human Bearer
Impatience and dread grew inside him as he waited for Ferix to open the first door and allow him to step inside his inner sanctum. In the end, he had opted for knocking and the sensor that scanned his eye let him pass, a sign that the good doc was aware of the person who was trying to bring down his door. The chances were not many dared to do such a thing, but Riordan didn't care about particulars at this point. Everything seemed to happen so slowly, he thought, as he lifted his arms and waited for the sterilization process to finish.
Ferix didn't appear happy to see him. His pursed lips only gave his young face an endearing quality. It was as if a kid was trying to play the role of an adult. Riordan knew the guy was good, but unfortunately for both of them, shit was about to get real.
"To what circumstances do I owe this insufferable visit?"
"You suck at politeness, doc," Riordan said quickly. "Listen, don't ask me how I know, don't probe my mind for a second. Xana is in danger." He looked at his husband, suspended in his special tank, his eyes still closed, oblivious to the danger lurking not so far from him. "Some Xenos on the ship want the poison inside him."
"That is absolute nonsense," Ferix said and his frown grew deeper. "I would know--"
Riordan forgot all he had learned lately about manners and grabbed the young Xeno's arm. "Listen to me, doc, and listen closely. I'm not a nice bearer, taught at some fancy academy. I don't want to twist your hand, but do you happen to store this horrible stuff you're pulling out of my husband?"
"I do, and how do you know?"
"Call it a hunch. We Earthians have them at random. Now, how about you check if anyone fiddled with your locks or something? Assuming you have everything under lock and key."
"Of course," Ferix said, obviously taking affront at any allusion that he might not be doing his job correctly.
"So check, man, check. If they want what's inside Xana, they must have tried to pick your locks."
Ferix turned on his heel so abruptly his hair hit Riordan over the face. That didn't stop him from following closely.
"Do you mind?" Ferix hissed at him. "I am the only one who's supposed to handle such things."
Riordan ignored him. "Is this poison also affecting humans?"
Ferix threw him a withering look over his shoulder. "How about we put that to the test?"
"Yeah, not funny," Riordan said in a low voice as he tried to keep his teeth from clattering. His Xeno host was pissed so, of course, he had to dial down the AC.
"It was created with specifics in mind that I will not indulge in explaining to you," Ferix said, using his words like little whips. "Xenos are the only ones affected."
They were inside an adjoining room that served, as it seemed, as a pharmacy-slash-storage space for highly valuable medicine. Not like anything Riordan had ever seen on Earth. Ceiling tall white cylinders lined the walls, some appointed with small windows through which stored vials could be seen, some without.
Ferix went directly to the one at the end of the line and then turned suddenly towards Riordan. "How do I know you're not lying to gain access to these samples?"
"I'm not," Riordan said simply and shrugged. "Come on. I'm just a human, and you're a strong Xeno. Do you really believe I could overcome you and take those things from you?"
Ferix didn't look entirely convinced. "You should at least offer the courtesy of letting me understand what you are thinking."
"My source is invaluable." Riordan noticed how the doctor gave him an annoyed look. "And above all suspicions."
Ferix hunched his shoulders for a moment, seemingly caught up in a debate with himself. Then, he appeared to have taken a decision and opened the vault in front of him.
It wasn't lost on Riordan how the young Xeno did a double take. His astonishingly white hands moved quickly, touching everything and then, he was bent from the waist, leaning closer to the door to the vault. It took Riordan some time to realize that the doctor was sniffing around like a hound dog.
"Well?" he asked impatiently.
Ferix held one hand on the open door and turned towards him with a troubled expression on his face. "Someone tried," he said in a clipped manner.
Riordan felt cold sweat pooling at the small of his back. "And? Did they succeed?"
Ferix shook his head shortly and his lips pursed again only to set into a grim line. "No. His Royal Chancellor must hear about this. You should not be here. I will take it upon myself to let His Excellency know that there was an attempt to break into my storage room. He will know what to do."
"And who's going to take care of Xana while you're wandering about?" Riordan asked aggressively. "I'll stay here. I just can't leave him alone."
An odd stare fixed on him. "You have a Xenolite in your care. How do you expect to do both? Let me be clear. My med bay is not a crèche."
That was a good question, and Riordan didn't exactly have an answer, but he couldn't, not in good conscience, abandon Xana now, when Junior was safe in the arms of his grandmother's loyal servants. He hoped to dear heavens if they existed that he wasn't wrong. He would never forgive himself if anything happened to Junior.
Ferix suddenly lifted his head.
"What is it?" Riordan asked as he watched the way Ferix's nostrils flared and his eyes opened wide.
His ears couldn't pick anything, nor his nose. So, he did the only thing he could. He turned slowly and then he noticed something through the half-open door they left behind them.
A shadow. Slowly growing. A Xeno.
"How the fuck--" he whispered.
Ferix pushed him out of the way and slithered out of the storage room. Riordan froze in place as hissing sounds emerged soon after. He took a step back, as the shadow now became more convoluted with two snakemen involved in some sort of silent fight.
Something poked him in the back and it took him a moment to understand that he had walked backwards into the open door to the vault containing those dangerous specimens collected from Xana's poisoned body.
He didn't think. He grabbed the vials, yanking them from their sockets and hurried towards the open door.
Only to witness the thing he dreaded. Ferix's body was entangled with that of another snakeman, one superior in size and strength. The young doctor's face, being so white on its own already, showed no change in color, but his pretty features were twisted, his mouth open in a silent cry.
"Release him!" he shouted.
The attacker turned his head to stare at him. Riordan felt his insides turning. There was something dead in the alien eyes; they reminded him of the strange Xenos on Gamni Gafilos's ship. He didn't know this Xeno, he was a total stranger to him. Had he infiltrated Tu'lek? Had he been a dormant agent up until now?
"I have something you want," Riordan said and held one vial up.
The Xeno moved fast. Riordan liked to think that he had learned a thing or two about dealing with these creatures. His goal was to have Ferix released from that deadlock so that the good doc could sound the alarm, whatever that meant.
Yet, he still wasn't ready to get pushed to the floor with such force. His wrist was now caught in a vise-like grip and it hurt like crazy. His brain picked on the animalistic sounds his throat was making with milliseconds latency.
He really hoped Ferix was right about the poison being ineffective against humans as he pushed his free hand in his pocket. The pain in his other wrist was killing him; it looked like the Xeno attacking him didn't mind breaking his arm only to get his hands on that vial.
"Take this, motherfucker!" Riordan smashed the vial removed from his pocket against his assailant's ear.
The bloodcurdling grin that stretched the Xeno's face poured ice in his veins. That shit wasn't working, probably not like that. But shards of glass cut into the side of the snakeman's face, blood trickling slowly. And then, the Xeno jolted, releasing Riordan's wrist. His entire body heaved and turned like an insect tortured by the fire created through means of a magnifying glass and a malevolent child.
Riordan rolled to one side and nursed his wrist. The vial dropped from his hand but he caught it quickly. He hoped that poison didn't work by infecting the air, too. He freaking hoped he wasn't killing Ferix while trying to save him.
"The human bearer," a voice hissed and he turned to see that there was another attacker in the room with them.
He was taller than the one writhing on the floor. And he was holding Ferix, his long tail wrapped around the doctor's slender frame, short of crushing him like a python prepping its meal before swallowing it whole.
The young Xeno seemed far gone. His body was limp and his head lolled to one side. The whole attack had happened while Riordan had struggled with the other snakeman on the floor. He blinked away the tears threatening to spill.
"Let go of him," he said, his voice hoarse. Pain was pulsing from his wrist through his brain, making him heave and walk with difficulty. "Is this what you came for?" He held two vials in his uninjured hand, still holding on to the hope that there was something he could do.
"No. I came for your lives," the Xeno said.
His head was abnormally big, Riordan thought. His eyes were sunken in his head, and the skin stretched over his skull as if it wasn't enough to do the job of hiding the sinews and bone and blood underneath.
And his hair hung in loose strands around his face, but it looked like the sort of useless thing on a dead person, still alive and growing from a body that was no longer there.
Riordan watched in horror as the strange Xeno opened his mouth wide, showing long fangs, only so he could sank them into the soft tissue of Ferix's neck. Something caught his hand and he realized that he had been had. While he wasn't watching, the snakeman must have uncoiled part of his tail from Ferix's body and was now yanking Riordan's arm, making the vials drop to the floor and break apart.
And then, he was pulled forward, his body smashing against Ferix's limp form. The strong tail coiled around him, slowly but with purpose, and he gasped in newfound pain.
"I will enjoy your death, human bearer," the snakeman said with unhidden glee. "I will slowly break every bone in your frail body, make your insides squash like the soft-tissue creature that you are."
Riordan understood the part where his attacker said that he intended to do it slowly. He almost couldn't breathe anymore, and a short unusual thought crossed his mind. He held his breath. He could take that from the asshole, not let him kill him on his own terms. At the same time, he tensed his entire body. Maybe the Xeno didn't expect the soft-tissue creature to show any opposition, and Riordan intended to fight.
His muscles were no match for the constricting power of the snakeman's muscular tail. He was losing, and he was losing fast. His head fell backwards as the pain grew too strong.
"Xana," he whispered, "I'm sorry."
Weird sounds happened, somewhere at the edge of what he could still call his consciousness. Was that... water splashing? He opened his eyes and saw something magnificent taking place right there, that very moment. Was it his wishful thinking making it up? Above the Xeno's disgusting head rose Xana's beautiful face, and then his hands brought together.
The intruder turned his head but it was too late for him. Xana's fists came down in the blink of an eye, and Riordan jerked as the hold on his body became lax. The horrendous skull of the Xeno cracked along, and blood, red as any other's, trickled out.
Riordan fell to the ground, his body suddenly regaining its own weight. Ferix fell by his side and then, the Xeno attacker slid along, his body enormous, its fall like that of a tall building with dynamite at its foundations meant to bring it down.
It was like a dream. Xana was coming out of his tank, yanking out the tubes still stuck in him, and he was over the other Xeno. His fists came up and down, to the rhythm of a hammer. Blood splashed everywhere, and the white hands, such elegant hands Riordan had thought before, turned redder and redder with each lift and descent.
It was alright. Xana was there, saving him, which was a bit ironic since Riordan had thought himself – who the hell could tell why? – capable of being the one to keep his Xeno husband safe.
They were powerful, their whole lot. Xana was a survivor, and he'd take care of Junior. Junior would meet his daddy. What a beautiful thought. Riordan smiled as the last drop of energy slid away from him.
"Riordan," he heard a voice and woke up with a start.
Xana was holding him close and kissing his face.
"Am I still in one piece?" he asked in a slurred voice.
"You are," Xana said tenderly. "Help is on the way. I need to tell you something, Riordan."
"Are you okay? You're not poisoned anymore?"
Xana's face was unreadable. Riordan looked around, confused. They were still inside the med bay, and Ferix was still lying on the floor, unmoved. The fucker who had tried to kill them all was a bit farther away, his head smashed in, a full circle of red around it.
"Riordan, listen to me," Xana said. "I might not have much time, so I have to say it. Look at me. Look into my eyes."
He did as told. He couldn't do differently. "I'm listening," he wheezed.
"I understand now," Xana said, his voice so tender, music to Riordan's ears. "I love you. I know what it is, your Earthian concept of love."
Riordan felt something like a cackle of laughter bubbling inside his chest, his throat. "You do? Are you sure?" He wanted to caress Xana's fair, wrap his fingers around the spun silk hair, but his arm didn't listen to him.
"I am. I'm sorry I can't give you seth to ease your pain. I am still--"
He didn't finish his thought because there was a blast behind them, and the room filled with guards and Xenos. He understood only that Xana was being pulled from him and taken back to his tank. He struggled to follow, but his body was that of a rag doll, and he had absolutely no control over it.
Xana smiled at him from behind the glass and pressed a hand against it. Riordan imagined he could touch it from the other side.
What had to be hours later, he woke up again, this time inside the same med bay where he had been before, or at least something that looked very much alike. It took him a while to fight his heavy eyelids, but eventually, he managed.
And he was happy to do that. Because right there, in the room, were Xeus and Junior.
"What were you thinking, Riordan?" daddy-in-law boomed as soon as he noticed he was awake.
"Ah, you know," he slurred – his voice was a bit better than before – "the usual. Xana was in danger. I had to save him. Yeah, by myself, because there was no time. Did I succeed?"
Xeus moved to bring a very sleepy Junior to him. "As much as you're still in a bad shape, your chest is good enough. My grandson refuses any nourishment, including from a human tit."
Riordan was thankful when he realized he could move his arms now. That seth was a powerful thing. Junior was soon all over him and he didn't need any coaxing to get a nipple in his mouth and start sucking.
"Wait," he whispered, gripped by panic, "I was in touch with that thing--"
"You were properly examined and you even had an entire layer of skin stripped from your body. You might still feel sore."
He did feel a bit sore. It was as if his skin was so new, his body was too old for it and didn't quite fit. Those were little things. "Xana," he said impatiently. "How is he? And Ferix?"
"Xana is back to the treatment he requires. This whole thing set him back. As for the doctor, his folly cost him."
"What the hell do you mean by that?" Riordan asked, his throat tight. If he could survive an attack like that, so could the young doctor.
"He obstinately refused to train in any sort of combat, always bent on his books and knowledge of medicine, according to His Excellency," Xeus spat with disdain.
"Is he alive?" Riordan raised his voice. When Junior stirred and growled, he took a hold of himself. "Just tell me he's not dead."
"He's not dead," Xeus said simply. "But I will recommend His Excellency that Ferix Baserat takes mandatory lessons on how to properly defend himself should such situations arise again."
"Yeah, about that," Riordan said, his jaw so tight it still hurt. "I had to rush to see Xana as soon as I found out."
"How did you find out?" Xeus asked.
"Never mind that," Riordan said quickly. "You need to teach me how to reach you when you're not around."
That seemed to stop Xeus dead in his tracks. "A reasonable demand. Finally. Or else, I would think you either went mad or a traitor."
"Really? I... okay, Xana saved me," Riordan said in a soft voice.
A noncommittal grunt came from daddy-in-law. "You will have to spill all your secrets, Riordan. All this running around of yours is getting annoying."
"You know, you're a bit too cool for someone who was about to lose his son again," Riordan replied, feeling pissed at these cold-blooded creatures, especially since their blood ran red and hot, the same as a human's.
"Xana proved himself," Xeus said shortly. "And I will ferret out all the traitors on this ship, I will align them and execute them one by one, making sure each of them lasts as much as possible until succumbing to their death."
"Wow, okay, remind me not to get on your bad side," Riordan murmured. "I don't know more, but there's possibly a third traitor on this ship. And those two... I've never seen them around."
"They infiltrated the ship, probably when Gamni Gafilos hijacked Tu'lek to extract my grandson from your womb."
"That wasn't actually his first goal," Riordan protested. "That whole deal sort of happened."
Xeus waved, showing his growing irritation. "Get well. That's all you have to do."
"Xeus," Riordan called out, "who's watching over Xana now?"
"His Excellency. And since my grandson is now in your arms, where he belongs," Xeus said pointedly, "I will now go to relieve him from his duty. I won't be in my quarters until the remaining traitors will surface. And the one other allowed to watch over my son is the only Xeno on this ship above all suspicions."
"Marn," Riordan said, mostly like an afterthought.
"Yes."
"Xeus," Riordan said softly and then, as daddy-in-law leaned over him to listen, "thank you."
The majestic Xeno said nothing for a while. "No, thank you, Riordan. You proved, once more, you're not an average human bearer."
tbc
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