Confederation would be behind all of this. When it comes to sapient species, I’ve never considered humanity to be one of the worst. Definitely not the best, but certainly not the worst.
I think back to all I’ve learned about humans during my time with the Hael Hounds.
As the premier mercenary group, headquartered on the planet Hael in the League of Non-Aligned Races, we were required to know about other species we could potentially come across in combat.
Humanity had come to the stars within the last four centuries, after they had regrouped from their third world war. They were incredibly short lived, and this caused them to breed faster than most other races in the galaxy.
Of all the races that had had a planetary conflict in their past, the humans had recovered from theirs several orders of magnitude faster than anyone. They had transformed their home world, Earth, into a commercial and technological hub and utopia by embracing the alien races and cultures and incorporating the best into their own.
Upon perfecting the technology for superluminal speeds, humanity had begun colonizing planets around their systems. These worlds formed the Interstellar Human Confederation—and in three centuries had formed as an economic and military power that was now taken seriously by the major powers in this quadrant of the galaxy. Many humans had emigrated away from the IHC and settled in worlds that have joined the League as well. A large contingent of humans had also created a separate political power, the Helios Combine.
Generally, humans were not a group of sapient species that brought about a lot of negative emotions.
But for their government to be trafficking in its own citizens?
I’d believe this about the Helios Combine and their Nobility, which had its origins in humans who had splintered with the IHC. But for the government of 140 billion humans in the galaxy to be trying to sell its own citizens just makes no sense to me.
When I come back down to the bar, Lamira spots me from her vantage on the table and waves enthusiastically. “Woo hoo. Who ordered the stud with a side of beefcake?”
Varia covers her face with her hands while Solair laughs so hard his eyes tear up.
I approach the table, and she puts her arms akimbo and stares down at me with mock sternness. “Where have you been? I missed you.”
“My apologies, Lamira. I’ve met with my old associate and have learned some things of importance.”
“That’s great.” Lamira’s lovely face creases with a wide smile. “You’re so good to us. Thank you for being such a sweetheart.”
“Think nothing of it…” With her on the table, she has to bend slightly to do so, but she puts her hands on each side of my face. “Wha—what are you doing?”
“Thanking you properly.”
Then she mashes her lips onto mine. There’s no tongue, no frantic groping, and yet I feel as if a bolt of electricity has passed through my spine.
For the briefest of moments, perhaps less than a nanosecond, I can feel the cosmic swirl of happenstance pulsing through me, around me, around everything. I can see the chain of events, which have led to this inevitable moment.
There’s an empty spot in my chest I never even noticed before, until now. I only know of it because Lamira curls up and snuggles into that empty spot, filling it now and forever.
That’s it. Lamira is my fated mate. As she pulls away from me, a devilish grin on her face, I notice Solair give me a knowing wink.
“Perhaps we’d best head back to the Queen before the debriefing.” Solair inserts his cred stick into the port at our table, paying our tab.
“Oh, there’s going to be debriefing all right,” Varia says into her drink, her gaze carefully avoiding both Lamira and me.
The ride back to the ship is pleasant because Lamira sits pressed up to my side with her arm snaked through mine. Her presence is overwhelming, and I ache to hold her bare skin to my own.
When we reach the cargo bay, Solair makes the unusual move of letting me know I can skip the debrief.
“Are you certain?”
“Oh, yes. You have some personal business to attend to. Our warriors are knowledgeable and well-trained. They can tell me of all that transpired.”
He leaves before I have a chance to express gratitude. When I turn around, I find Lamira standing there in front of me, pointedly swallowing the second half of her tablet.
“What are you doing?”
“Dry swallowing a pill. Ugh.” She shakes her head. “I