Council Leader Vorik stood at the door of cabin TM437. It was the only confidential cabin on the entire ship at the moment, or in the fleet for that matter. No one knew who was inside except for a select few. Those few were Merrick, Vorik's pilot, Rask, the copilot, and Renn, who was the medic in training. Mia Danicky, the girl Travis Nichols tortured and raped, was inside being treated for her injuries. The last time he saw her was three weeks ago. She was afraid of her own shadow and cowered at the slightest sound. She was a frightened seventeen-year-old who formed an attachment to Renn, the medic trainee.

Renn had been the one who had taken care of her when she was first brought into the clinic by the guards. He was the only one who hadn't inadvertently frightened her.

When Mia had arrived at the clinic covered in her own blood, Renn had been the one ordered to bathe her the first day to get the matted blood out of her hair and dried blood off her body so that Medic Kaul could treat her wounds.

The door of cabin TM437 slid smoothly open for Vorik, revealing Renn, who stood inside at the opening, looking out. Seeing who had just arrived, Renn immediately made the gesture of respect. "Sir," he smiled, then moved aside for his leader to enter the cabin.

Council Leader Vorik stepped inside; the door slid smoothly closed behind him. His gaze swept the room, not seeing who he needed to speak with. "I need to speak with Mia," he told the medic in training.

Mia, hearing her name, peeked around the corner, using the wall as a protective cover. She had heard that someone was at the door of the cabin, so she was hiding in the bathroom. When she looked out, they could see her eyes peering around the wall out of the opening; nothing else.

Council Leader Voirk didn't approach her. He knew she would not come out of the bathroom if he did. She had to be coaxed out, or she would stay hidden. It seemed that Renn was the only one she trusted.

Renn walked over to Mia, holding out his hand. "Come, Mia. He is my people's leader. He will not hurt you. He only wishes to speak to you," he told her gently.

Mia's eyes moved up to Renn and then to Vorik. She slowly moved out from behind the door frame, bringing her into full view. She took Renn's hand cautiously and allowed him to pull her toward Council Leader Vorik.

Vorik noticed that she no longer resembled a skeleton from starvation, and her coloring was normal, no longer sickly pale. She was only wary of approaching.

Renn walked her to the table near Vorik and had her sit in one of the chairs. Vorik sat across from her. "Do I need to leave, sir, so that you can speak to her privately?" Renn asked.

Mia flinched, but nothing more. She believed Renn when he told her something. She could tell that he didn't lie to her. It was only a reflex due to what had happened to her in the past.

"That won't be necessary," Vorik told Renn. Then turned to Mia. "Do you know why your blood is different?" he asked her gently. He didn't want her to become fearful and not want to tell him what he needed to know. There was a chance that what she knew could save a lot of people. If she knew anything, that is.

Mia looked at Renn. Fear was in her eyes. Renn nodded, smiling, encouraging her to tell his leader. "You can tell him. He won't hurt you."

Mia looked back at Vorik and nodded slowly. "Yes," she said quietly, answering Vorik's question.

Council Leader Vorik decided to give Mia information before taking information from her. "Do you know that the toxin will not affect you the same way as other humans?" he asked, keeping his voice quiet, gentle.

Mia nodded again.

Hope bloomed in Vorik's heart. "I need to know why and if that knowledge can create a cure," he told her gently.

Mia looked up at Renn again. He nodded in encouragement. She looked back at Vorik and started to talk. What she said shocked both Renn and Vorik. They didn't suspect she would have so much to say, nor what that content would tell them.

"Twenty-three years before you invaded Earth, my father escaped his planet, trying to save his mother from what his leader was going to do with her as soon as he turned eighteen. They live in a controlled society. The leader believes that the females are 'useless eaters' if they can no longer bear children or if they have no more children in the home to raise. My father was the last in his family; his mother would have died when he turned eighteen." She began quietly, looking at Renn, then Vorik.

Vorik nodded, waiting for her to continue.

"The leader also did not allow family bonding because it made the family stronger. He would kill the entire family if they showed that there was a bond between the mother and her children. Those who had a bond hid it. My father loved his mother, Terrie. He also didn't want to be taken by the soldiers to be altered. The first thing they do to subdue them when they are first brought in is kill their mother in front of them, then serve her to them as some sort of stew. They are forced to eat their mothers. My father, Jevin, did not want that for his mother or himself. After they are forced to eat the stew, they are injected with some kind of serum that makes them obey orders. They are like puppets and have no control over what they do for their leader. My father did not want to be a puppet doing things that are horrific, like destroying planets. His people also have a mating bond like you do; only the bond affects more than the bonded pair. The entire race is soul-bound to each other, but the bonded pair is far more powerful. If the fated, bonded pair find each other and they are near those that have been injected by the controlling serum, the serum would dissipate out of the body, and they would be themselves again," she continued.

Vorik perked up, his hope rising. "Just being near the bonded pair, they are cured?" he asked, wanting to confirm it.

Mia nodded. "The mate bonding is forbidden, and the leader kills them as soon as possible so it doesn't affect the injected soldiers. Every aspect of my father's people is controlled. Twenty-three years ago, while his leader and his puppet soldiers were leaving to conquer a world called Ramesia, he took his mother and fought his way off of Krogen."

Both Vorik's and Renn's faces paled. Ramesia was their home before they came to Earth, and it was the Kreq from Krogen that destroyed everything, making it no longer livable.

Mia continued. "When my father ran from his home planet, he and his mother crash-landed on Earth. While they tried to get away from the crash site, my father passed out after getting into a small fishing boat to go to the other side of the lake. They ended up at the shore of my grandfather Dean's home. He and his daughter, my mother, were coming to stay for the summer and ran into Terrie, my father's mother. She asked for help, and because of my mother, my grandfather gave it. When my mother was wiping the blood from his head, he woke up. It turned out that they were a bonded pair. My grandfather let them stay with him so that he could allow his seventeen-year-old daughter and the seventeen-year-old crashed alien to be together. Five years later, they had my sister, Terrie. She found her bonded mate the day before you invaded, so she broke up with her boyfriend, Travis Nichols. The next day, he kidnapped me as soon as she went into the house to talk to my parents. My grandparents were in the house making tea or something. I don't know. They were always together. I stayed outside, looking at the sky. It was getting too dark, and I didn't know why. That's when a hand went to my mouth, and I was dragged into the forest. I couldn't call for help," she explained as a tear fell down her cheek, remembering what had happened.

Renn and Vorik stayed silent. Mia was telling them everything. They waited for her to collect herself and continue.

"When I looked toward the house, as soon as he got me to the woods, long cigar-shaped ships showed up and shot a beam of light at the house, killing my family," then she looked up at Vorik. "You killed my family, and my blood is Kreq because of my father. It's different from the soldiers because it's not diluted with the injection."

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