Council Leader Vorik stood in the clinic waiting for Medic Kaul to arrive for his shift. He had listened to Mia Danicky's story. Shock and horror were in the depths of his soul. The Kreq was not what he had thought, and the serum from Tosh was from the Kreq. It was a lot to take in.

Like Council Leader Tosh had worked to control his people, the Kreq leader had already found a way to control his own. If the Kreq soldiers had no way to control their actions when they made Ramesia unlivable, he couldn't hold their invasion against them.

Then Vorik thought about his own actions, following the orders Council Leader Tosh had given him. His actions were the same as the Kreq. He destroyed nearly the entire population, flattened the cities, and turned many of the humans into flesh-eating zombies.

He could not even blame the prisoners in the cells for their actions because his own people would have done the same if the position had been reversed. They were fortunate that the humans were warming up to them. It was the mating bond that stopped the chaos. Now they were all trying to pick up the pieces.

"Council Leader Vorik, Sir?" Medic Kaul acknowledged his leader as he entered his post. The sound of Kaul's voice broke Vorik out of his inner babble.

"I need you to test the raw toxin and see if it has 'controlling' properties," Vorik ordered. "The toxin was given to Tosh by the Kreq leader. They inject their soldiers with a serum that forces them to obey. I want to know if this serum does that to Kreq. It's to confirm the information that I received."

Medic Kaul studied his leader for a moment. "I can run simulations," he suggested. "I can also run simulations on it with our DNA as well as human DNA. I have samples programmed into the medical computer, so it should be easy."

Vorik nodded, still distracted. "Use the scan you did on Mia Danicky as well. I want to know exactly what it does. I want to know if it controls her, turns her, or something else."

Forgetting himself, Medic Kaul turned to Vorik. "Why on Mia's if she is no longer here?" His tone was satisfied, happy that she wasn't.

Council Leader Vorik looked at Medic Kaul, his voice turning hard. "Yet you will follow your order and notify me of the results."

"Yes, Sir. I apologize," Kaul stated, bowing slightly. Shame was clear on his face. "I will do as ordered," he stated formally.

Vorik studied Kaul for a moment. "I found out a few things about the Kreq. They are not what we thought they were. We have also done what they have done to us by destroying the majority of this planet. We are the Kreq to humans. You need to remember that. They have been welcoming, considering what we did to them. Seeing the similarities between what they did to us and what we did to this planet is a bitter pill to swallow."

Medic Kaul looked at his leader. "Sir, how can simulating the toxin with the DNA of Kreq, Ramesian, Human, and whatever Mia was, help?"

Council Leader Vorik thought a moment, trying to decide if he should tell Kaul about Mia being under the care of Renn on the mother-ship. Sighing, he decided to wait until after Kaul ran the simulation, then gave him the results. "How long will each simulation take?" he asked instead.

"Not long. I can run them right now. It will only take a few minutes for each," Medic Kaul stated as he started to set up the simulation. "I will test it on Kreq DNA first, since that's where Tosh received the toxin in the first place."

Council Leader Vorik watched as Kaul worked. It took only about ten minutes to set up for the first simulation. After he was finished, Kaul turned to Vorik. "It's ready to do the first simulation."

Vorik nodded, and they both watched the readout as Kaul pressed the button to start the simulation. A figure of a Kreq appeared on the screen. Once the figure was completely formed on the screen, the simulation of the toxin entering the Kreq's bloodstream began. Words appeared on the screen beside the figure.

"The toxin appears to control the Kreq. It's linked to a specific person. It's linked to Commander Grev." Medic Kaul stated in shock. "Grev can control them all at once with this toxin."

"Run the simulation on Human DNA," Vorik ordered, staring at the bright red outline of a Kreq. It was exactly what Mia had told him about the injections that were given to the soldiers.

Kaul reset the simulation using Human DNA. He pressed the button to begin the simulation. A human form appeared. The simulation showed the toxin being injected into the human figure. Words suddenly appeared beside the figure. Kaul bent forward and began to read.

"A craving for living flesh," Kaul stated. "It also shows the change in body chemistry, which changes the coloring. The dark green is the body trying to fight the toxin but fails, causing the change in behavior."

"Run it on Ramesian DNA," Council Leader Vorik ordered. The effects on each race seemed to be something different. He wanted to know what it did to the Ramesians. Tosh probably had a plan to use it on his own people as well. If it weren't for Niki challenging him, he would still be alive to implement whatever sinister plan he had in mind.

Medic Kaul reset the simulation, this time for his own people's DNA. They both watched the results as Kaul pressed the button to run the simulation.

A Ramesian form appeared on the screen. It showed the Ramesian being injected. This time, the words appearing took much longer. Instead of the results, an error message appeared requiring leadership access codes. Council Leader Vorik bent forward, entered his access code, and the simulation restarted, this time finishing the simulation and giving the full results.

They both read the words. "It connects us to Tosh so that he could control us like it does Gev to Kreq," Council Leader Vorik noted. "He was planning on controlling us all." The shock was clear with each word he spoke. "That explains why he didn't care about the mating bond. He must have been worried that our own bond would do the same thing. He was afraid it would dissipate the toxin and neutralize the controlling effect.

"I think what Niki did to liberate us was a greater act than what we had thought. She saved us from becoming slaves," Vorik noted. "We thought she was making it safe for mated pairs. In reality, she saved us all from enslavement."

"This means Tosh was working with Grev. Do you think that Tosh helped Grev conquer our own planet?" Kaul asked. He didn't like what he was learning.

"All evidence points to him helping to destroy our world. I want to know why he would send us here to do the same to this planet?" Vorik stated. "This puts a whole new light on things."

"So, how do we reverse the effects of it?" Kaul asked. "Is there an antidote to stopping the toxins?"

"I will have to go through Tosh's files to see. I don't know where to even look to begin figuring it out. I will give you some information that I was hesitant about giving you, however. Mia is on the mother-ship being cared for by Renn. Her father was a Kreq who had escaped Krogen to save his mother from death. He told her a lot of stories about his life on Krogen. Apparently, every aspect of their lives is controlled. Bound mates are killed on discovery, and families that have a familial bond are also killed. Gev knew that families would be stronger if they loved each other. At eighteen, the males are bound and taken to a camp, their mothers are killed in front of them, and they are forced to eat them before they are injected with this toxin to control them. Mia's father ran from Krogen to save both himself and his mother. He found a fated mate after he crash-landed, and Mia was the result. We killed her family the day she was kidnapped by Travis. She saw it happen. Her parent, sister, and grandparents were in the house that was targeted," Vorik explained.

Kaul stared at Vorik in shock, unable to speak.

Vorik continued. "Bonded pairs are killed because being near them counters the effects of the toxin. The toxin dissipates, and they have their will back, no longer under the control of their leader."

Kaul swallowed. "Are you saying that being around them could cure the zombies if Mia finds her mate? She is half-human, which means she could cure the zombies, right? She is half Kreq, so if she is near them, it could also affect the Kreq?"

Kaul was trying to wrap his head around the possibilities.

"We don't know," Vorik stated. "It's a possibility."

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