Two hundred eighty two years ago, Carda’an Standard year 6027, Second Carda’an home world

  They were sitting in Variel’s room at the university and the large window provided a perfect view of the sunset. It had been two months since they set out cameras to capture images from the forest surrounding Jane and her owner. To date, the results had not been reassuring. Aghrael bit down hard on one of his claws as he watched Jane fall to the ground, her mouth open in a silent scream. Sparks of electricity danced under her skin. He wasn’t sure if his friend understood what was happening, but Aghrael understood with perfect clarity, that the microchip embedded in Jane’s brain was sending pain impulses along her nerves. The functionality of the chip was entirely intuitive. He thought of Jane’s dull, sunken blue eyes.

  Variel sat quietly, looking out the window.

  “What now?” Aghrael asked into the silence.

  “Now nothing. Go away.”

  “Oh I see. You’re going to do the whole ‘I don’t need any help, I can do this by myself’ bit. Two problems with that. First, you’ll get caught and second, you won’t actually help Jane.”

  Variel made an ambiguous gesture with three claws, and remained silent.

  “I have nightmares about her.” Aghrael admitted quietly.

  “Me too.”

  “The ship for the colonies is leaving in a few weeks. And there won’t be another one for a long time. Are you really going to live with this continuing on, indefinitely? Or are we going to stop it? You can’t do it on your own but the two of us could. We can break the bond and get Jane off planet like Eleanor said. And we’re not technically killing anyone. No one will know we did it. Let’s just do this.” Aghrael said, with completely atypical impatience.

  “There are two problems with that.” Variel spoke up finally. “First, I’m not sure that we can. That guy has centuries of experience in war and paranoia. I looked him up and he served on old earth before returning. And second, someone can detect something like that. Eleanor can. She gave us the means to commit a crime that is probably undetectable – to anyone but her. Eleanor will know, and she will use us. The logical solution… the logical solution is to try to repair the bond.”

  Aghrael sat for a long while, and considered the stupidity of that statement. “Would your mom forgive your dad if he did that?” He finally asked.

  “Shit.” Variel said expressively. “Shit. Why are you even involved in this? It has nothing to do with you.”

  “It’s an interesting experiment.” Aghrael offered.

  “Frankly Aghrael, that entire idea of getting Jane out by breaking the bond is overly complex, convoluted, and stupid. And it leaves us beholden to Eleanor.”

  “We’ll help Eleanor smuggle the slaves because we need to, in order to help Jane and to get assigned to the colony ship. There’s not much more she can get out of us after that, we’ll be seventy light years away.”

  “Just listen. Let’s say you break the bond. That means he can’t track Jane using the bond. That’s great. But he’s still a walking dead psycho whose only purpose for walking is to take revenge on whoever killed his mate. And technically, that would look to be us. So as far as brilliant plans go…”

  “But he can’t.” Aghrael said, waving a claw with some satisfaction.

  “Why can’t he?”

  “Because physics.”

  “No buddy, I’m pretty sure no laws of physics will stop him from dismembering our assess and burying us deep in the woods.”

  “Yes.” Aghrael said with some satisfaction. “They will.”

  “How?”

  “Because we’re going to grab Jane the day before we ship out to one of the colonies, and then we’re going to run like hell… at very near the speed of light. And while he may keep walking with a broken bond for a year, or two, or perhaps three, he sure as hell won’t be walking for the years it’s going to take us to get to this colony.”

  “As long as we get on the ship…” Variel said thoughtfully.

  “And as long as he doesn’t.” Aghrael added.

  “And you want to go to the colonies anyway, don’t you?”

  “Yes.” Aghrael said, his heart skipping slightly in anticipation. “Yes, I do.”

  ---

  It was winter on second homeworld. The climate was moderate and the leaves remained on the trees, but there was a noticeable chill in the air as they returned to the deep forest surrounding Jane’s home. The gray light of the winter sun barely penetrated the canopy of trees over their heads.

  “Why do you think they call it Cannibal Moon?” Aghrael asked, keeping his voice low although they were still hours from their target. Cannibal Moon was the mysteriously named destination of the colony ship departing in three days.

  “No idea.”

  “Maybe the planet it’s orbiting is losing atmosphere and it’s being pulled in by the moon’s gravity.” Aghrael suggested. “Get it? It’s a cannibal moon because it’s cannibalizing its own planet and…”

  “I got it.” Variel said, trying to hold on to his patience. They brought equipment this time. Two camouflaged guns, the EMP and a home built bomb with a very visible countdown clock. Their plan was to camp out on the perimeter and wait for Jane and her owner to come out, but if that failed, the bomb was plan B to get their target out of the house. And they had three days. “The problem with the brilliant plan.” Variel said, happily changing topics “is that while the laws of physics and speed of light travel and all that are great, there’s a solid three day window during which he can dismember our assess and bury us in the woods. And that’s assuming he doesn’t somehow make his way onto the ship.”

  “A plan doesn’t have to be perfect to be brilliant.” Aghrael pointed out.

  “Ah. That’s great. Great point.” Variel said glumly. They walked on in silence.

  “Twenty female slaves.” Variel mused, trying to cheer himself up a while later.

  “What?”

  “That’s who will be on the ship.”

  “Escaped slaves. Who are technically no longer slaves. Isn’t that the point?”

  “Sure. They can choose. But the choices are what they are. That’s just life. And what I’m thinking, is that I like my odds.”

  “It’s a six man crew.”

  “And one of them is you.” Variel said, cheering up further.

  “One of the female slaves will be Jane. Hopefully.”

  “So?”

  “So she’s your grandmother.”

  “Yeah but… you’ve seen her, right?”

  Aghrael paused midstep, turning towards the invisible source of Variel’s voice before shaking his head and continuing on in silence. They were reaching the perimeter of the house, the windows as darkened and empty as ever. Pausing as one, they turned right to circle the perimeter and perhaps catch a glimpse of someone through one of the windows. Their steps were silent over the moss lining the forest floor.

  They were headed towards the back of the house when Variel’s foot slipped. The moss under his feet, that had looked so smooth before his foot landed, gave way and collapsed around him. An instant later, he felt the sharp bite of pain around his ankle. The hole he was in was deeper than the top of his head and the darkness that surrounded him was nearly complete. “Aghrael?” He whispered. “I’m guessing this thing has sensors that will send a signal when someone falls in. Does he know we’re coming?”

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  “I don’t think so. I activated the EMP before you finished falling in.” Unfortunately, the EMP did nothing to disable a trap that was essentially a hole in the ground, no electronics involved.

  “That’s good. Now how the fuck do I get out? And be careful, I’m guessing there are more of these all around.” Variel added, trying to keep his voice steady.

  “Are you ok? You sound…”

  “Just get me out.” Variel said, breathing through the pain. The metal teeth of a predator trap clamped around his ankle, digging in until he wasn’t sure he would be able to walk, even if they did manage to get his foot out of the trap.

  Aghrael considered the situation, from a safe distance. Very carefully, he started pulling thick branches off neighboring trees, beginning to build a ramp for Variel to walk out. “I think this should be enough.”

  “I need you to pull me up.” Variel admitted reluctantly, doing his best to keep his voice down.

  Surprised, Aghrael obliged, choosing the sturdiest of the branches and pulling. “Oh shit.” He said expressively, looking down at Variel’s foot. And then looking away. The teeth of the trap left mangled scales, blood and a bit of bone exposed to the dim light of the winter sun. Variel’s foot wasn’t going to be invisible any time soon.

  “We’re just lucky the damn thing wasn’t attached to anything.” Variel whispered, trying in vain to get the damp dirt off his skin. The rest of him wasn’t going to be invisible any time soon, either. “Can you open it?”

  “It’s made to trap large predators.”

  “You’re bigger than most large predators.”

  “Yes but…” Aghrael blinked, staring down at the blood and bone trapped between the metal jaws of the trap. “This is not really my thing.”

  “Is dying your thing?”

  Maybe running away is my thing, Aghrael thought silently. And then he doubled down on pulling open the trap. It took him eight tries to get the trap to open up enough for Variel to withdraw his foot, and he moved his hands just barely fast enough to keep it from clamping down on his fingers. He looked up at the sound of a soft screech coming from Variel. “What the… there’s something on you.” He said.

  They both looked down at Variel’s leg, watching a large, eight legged creature as it crawled, its skin perfectly reflective of their surroundings. Which wasn’t especially helpful. Sitting over the surface of Variel’s dirt covered skin, it was quite visible. And screeching. “It’s a chameleon…I think.” Variel said, puzzled. He held out his other hand and the eight legged creature mirroring back the forest around them stepped onto his palm. “It must come from first homeworld. Second homeworld doesn’t have chameleons. And it’s doing it wrong.” He added, cocking his head. The little chameleon should have been trying to match with the surface beneath it, not what was overhead.

  “I think it must have been trapped under the moss when the trap was built.” Aghrael said, looking around nervously. “It’s an eight legged chameleon from first home world. They’re rare. And they can detect brain activity based on emitted radio waves and magnetic resonance.” He added.

  “So they’re telepathic?” Variel asked, interested in spite of the situation.

  “They can detect brain activity based on…”

  “They’re telepathic.” Variel said firmly.

  “Yes.” Aghrael agreed, resigned. “You were planning to rescue someone. It may have picked up on your intentions and misunderstood. She.” He corrected himself. All eight legged chameleons were female.

  “She’s awesome.” Variel said, smiling as the furry little legs tickled his hand. Oddly, the pain in his ankle seemed to recede. “But we have bigger problems.” He added abruptly. “Think about it. We had cameras all around the perimeter.”

  “Yeah so?”

  “And now there are traps everywhere. And we never saw him putting them in. He knows we’re here.” Variel said grimly. “He probably knows my mom asked about Jane. He knows someone is coming for her.”

  They stood frozen, staring at each other.

  “We’re shipping out in three days.” Variel said, forcing himself to put weight on his damaged foot. “It’s now or never. No one else is coming for her. Are you still in?”

  “I’m still in.”

  “Good. Now, let’s find another trap. He’s not the only one who can play games. I’m going to trigger it and scream while you watch from the forest until he comes out. And then you shoot him.” Variel said. After all, they brought the guns with stun rounds for a reason. And he was feeling a lot better with the metal teeth removed from his ankle. The blood was already clotting.

  They used branches as walking sticks, feeling their way carefully over open ground as they walked. It didn’t take long to find another trap. Apparently, the perimeter was riddled with them. “Wait.” Variel said quietly. “Let’s find something closer to the front of the house. There’s at least one more entrance and I want to make sure we know where he’s coming from. He’ll be easier for you to track.

  “I didn’t see him at all last time.” Aghrael admitted. “I saw the camouflaged gun but not him. He’s really good.”

  “Yeah but he was barely moving. He’ll be moving this time. You’ll know where he starts out and you’ll know where he’s going. You can make him out.”

  Aghrael wasn’t at all sure that he could. But he had no better plan. He sent the EMP all around the perimeter, disabling the remaining motion sensors. There was no longer any point in maintaining secrecy. Their target clearly knew they were coming. “Trigger the trap with the walking stick and stay out of the hole.” He said as they approached the front of the house.

  “And here I’d planned to stick my foot into another one of these things.” Variel muttered as they continued, carefully skirting another hidden trap that wasn’t in quite the right location.

  It was a good plan. The metal jaws of the trap shattered the base of the wood stick into splinters as the boys looked down into the dark depths of the trap. Then Variel started screaming. It came easily because his foot really did hurt like a bitch. He quieted down a while later, getting nervous as he realized that neither of them saw their target and he was giving away his own location. Surely the man wouldn’t remain entirely invisible. It was highly unlikely that neither he nor Aghrael would spot him coming. But the woods were murky, and growing darker as the afternoon sun’s rays slanted. It was early yet, but the sun was starting to head back down towards the horizon. “I don’t think he’s coming out.” Variel said, his voice barely audible in the stillness.” He brushed irritably as he felt the eight legged chameleon ticking the back of his neck. Apparently, she decided to hitch a long distance ride. “Do we go with the bomb?”

  Aghrael moved to take the bomb out of its camouflaged bag when the attack came. Variel was hit first, falling silently to the ground as Aghrael moved aside just in time to avoid the stunner fire, the slight numbness along his shoulder a pointed reminder of how close he had come. Aghrael dropped the camouflaged bag and gun immediately. They would leave him too visible to the eyes of the other chameleon. Without the accessories, his ability to disappear into the forest was at least as flawless as his opponent’s. But he wasn’t really sure what to do. He tried listening for the sound of someone moving through the forest, but all was silent. Until suddenly, an odd screech echoed through the forest.

  If his eyesight was anything less than perfect, he would not have made them out. The eight legged chameleon was laughably obvious when sitting on someone’s shirt. Against the background of fully camouflaged carda’an skin, the eight legged creature was nearly invisible. But the unplanned movements as Jane’s owner did his best to dislodge his unexpected attacker, were enough. Hastily grabbing the gun he initially left behind, Aghrael pointed and fired, and fired, and fired.

  A few long minutes later, all was silence. Very slowly, Aghrael walked up to where he thought their attacker had fallen. Carda’ans could maintain their camouflage after being hit, so the body was exceptionally difficult to make out. Very carefully, he picked up the equally stunned eight legged chameleon. The prone body of their attacker did not stir. Neither did Variel. But something else was moving through the forest. He spun around, gun still in hand, to find Jane’s eerie light blue eyes staring back into his. She was walking with that odd, unnaturally even gate, her breathing perfectly modulated.

  “Uh.” Aghrael said expressively. And then he held out the small EMP, activating it and destroying the delicate electronics of the microchip Jane had implanted in her brain, as well as any trackers. It wasn’t enough to destroy the bond, but it was a start.

  Jane’s dull blue eyes looked at him blankly. And then she grabbed her head and screamed.

  “Ugh.” Aghrael repeated. “We’re here to… to rescue you so if you just walked back to the car and…”

  Jane screamed.

  The eight legged chameleon screeched angrily into his ear.

  She doesn’t look like she weighs all that much, Aghrael’s brain supplied helpfully. He did not like the screaming. Or the screeching. With a resigned sigh, Aghrael shot Jane as well. Leaving all of them except for the eight legged chameleon, who apparently chose where she wanted to go without any input from anyone, he picked up the bomb and set it off inside the hole Variel fell into earlier. He sincerely hoped there would not be an investigation at all, but if there was, the treasure trove of DNA evidence tying the day’s events to Variel would not be available. He then walked back towards Jane and Variel, loaded one on each shoulder and with an even more deeply resigned sigh, walked slowly and somewhat painfully back towards the car. It was an exceptionally long walk.

  ---

  Upon seeing the car, Aghrael unceremoniously dumped both of the bodies he was carrying onto the ground and collapsed. He wanted nothing more than to sit quietly and read the longest, most boring research paper on quantum entanglement ever written. But it was a long walk. And he was slow. Variel stirred slightly from his awkward position on the ground. Which meant that somewhere deep inside the forest, Jane’s owner would begin to stir, as well.

  Aghrael forced himself to get back up. The EMP device needed to break the bond was too large to take with them into the forest, but they brought it in the car. Aghrael wasn’t sure quite how he envisioned this would go, but he definitely hadn’t thought he would be making the decision to break the bond on his own, with Jane lying unconscious on the ground next to the car. But when her owner woke up, the minute he woke up, he would come for her. There wasn’t time. Biting down on one claw so hard it broke, Aghrael placed Jane, stomach down, directly onto the EMP emitter. And activated the electro magnetic pulse.

  As far as groundbreaking scientific experiments went, this one was a bit of a letdown. Nothing much happened. Carefully, he pulled Jane back off, placing the burn ointment onto the skin of her stomach. The burns were relatively minor. Whether the attempt was effective… Aghrael made a slight dismissive gesture with his broken claw. Of course it was effective. The bond was not magic. Based on the strength of the magnetic pulse, no entangled particles could survive in such close proximity to the source of the EMP. His hands only slightly shaking, he loaded Jane and Variel into the car and drove off, dirt spraying from underneath the tires as he floored the pedal in his eagerness to get the fuck out of there and never, ever return. The words “there’s a solid three day window during which he can dismember our assess and bury us in the woods. And that’s assuming he doesn’t somehow make his way onto the ship.” echoed quite loudly inside his head. And a nice seventy light year trip to distance himself from the day’s events seemed just the thing.

  ---

  Deep inside the forest, Jane’s owner woke up, shaking off the effects of the stun rounds. It wasn’t pain that he felt. He was used to the pain. This was nothing. An eternal endless emptiness that was the absence of everything. He looked up at the stars overhead, and screamed. A few minutes later, his lifeless body fell to the ground, eyes still open towards the darkened sky.