“I’m going to keep them anyhow,” Mathiras tells him, taking a step forward and casually tucking me behind him.
“If it pleases you,” the ooli says and waddles back toward one of the doors in the bay. He opens it with a wave of his hand over a sensor and heads down the hall. “The lab is this way. Follow me.”
Mathiras frowns, glancing over at me. I can tell he doesn’t like this. It’s written into every pore of his body. He would have preferred they come after us, blasters flying, because he knows how to handle that situation. We don’t know what to do with a friendly slaver. Do we kill him and bust our way in, or do we see where he’s leading us and hope it’s not a trap?
Then again, it’s always a trap. That’s what Mathiras says.
He watches me and I give him an encouraging nod. I’m ready for whatever this brings.
“Stay behind me,” Matty says protectively. “Just in case.”
“Of course.” That’s sweet of him. I can probably protect him better than he can protect me, but I suppose I can do it from the back as easily as the front.
We follow down the hall after the ooli, noting a few quiet, unmoving guards stationed in the halls. They hold shock-sticks, not blasters, and their helmets don’t turn as we walk past them. They could be statues for all I know. There’s something about them that bothers me but I can’t place it. Maybe it’s the eerie stillness with which they hold themselves. I want to pause and greet them but Mathiras keeps moving down the hall, and I trot after him.
We catch up to the ooli, who’s walking slower on his short legs. He glances back at us and smiles again. “Good, good. I’m glad you’ve decided to come. I wasn’t sure if you’d journey all this way and get cold fins.”
“What is this place?” Mathiras asks.
“Why, it’s my lab. My benefactor has set my team up quite nicely. Out here, we’re able to work without interruption, and we have all the materials we need to proceed. Well, almost all of them.” He sighs wistfully. “And now you’ve brought me a qura’aki to study. Oh, this is a pleasant day. It’s been years since we were able to play with one of her.”
“I didn’t say you were touching her,” Mathiras says, his tone hard.
“Of course not. Just looking, just looking,” the scientist says in a cheerful voice. “I’m Arluz, by the way. Arluz of the Thirteenth Pod of Sankos II, Blessed be the Tongue of the Goddess.”
“How many are on your team here?” Matty asks.
“Oh, three, if you don’t count our guards. We came in last summer after the last group of scientists left.”
“They left?”
“Oh yes. Very unfortunate incident, I’m told. I don’t know all the details, but the mistress was not pleased. Things were handled, that’s all I know.” He turns and beams at me. “Did you know that the qura’aki were an aquatic race once? Just like mine! I would love to see how she’s been modified.”
“Aquatic?” I ask, fascinated.
“Oh yes. Even though I personally have not worked on one of your kind, there are records. Your race was born with gills, but of course that doesn’t work for those that look to profit off of you. Can’t keep pretty things in water tanks after all, not when you want them in your bed. Those were one of the first modifications, or so I’m told. I think there was another to adjust faces and add a bit of variety, but I honestly don’t know.” He shrugs and continues waddling down the hall. “I’m a bit face blind when it comes to non-ooli. All your bumpy faces look the same to me.”
CHAPTER 86
MATHIRAS
I don’t know that I believe all the information this Arluz is rattling off to me. He seems genuine, talking on and on about genetic modifications and how excited he is to work on this ship and to “improve processes” but there’s something about all of this that strikes me as odd. Is he truly face-blind or lying? Is he truly new to working here or is he lying? Does he not recognize Helen as being cloned through these labs or yet again, is he lying?
Helen is quiet at my side, her face tilted up as she takes in our surroundings. I’m curious to see what she makes of all this, but our conversation will have to wait. We pass another set of guards, and then the ooli—Arluz—pauses in front of a set of double doors. He taps a code into the panel and I watch his hand move, noting the locations of his fingers as they move over the pad. Then he pauses and lets it scan his palm, and then leans in for it to scan his eye. “Security measures. You understand.”