Chapter 41

CHAPTER 41

THREXIN

A ship week later, Kaia Halena had not developed any signs of exorin poisoning or addiction, and Threxin moved from the mode of verification to one of vaccine synthesis.

He watched his biogineer review test results on a tablet in the medbay laboratory they had confiscated for their initiative. His human equivalent, a rigid woman with brown hair pulled back from her temples, hovered at his side. Kaia and Orion were present, though he'd rather they not be.

"Variant nine-three-seven…" Tetha muttered to his human counterpart without looking up from his tablet. "The RNA spike was much higher with this vaccine variant than the others, indicating a stronger reaction in the cultured cells. You noted an eighty percent dampening effect when a droplet of exorin was introduced to the cells."

Tetha's Universal was suspiciously fluent. Threxin would need to find out where he got the occasion to become so competent at it.

"Strongest reaction we've had since eighty-twenty," the human engineer, Priya-something, hummed. "Not sure we can intro it without damage to the host though… Eight-twenty killed the subject. "

And what an unfortunate death it was, even for a human. Threxin had read the report. They may have been able to save the prisoner they'd administered the vaccine to, but medical resources had to be managed conservatively. Too conservatively to waste them on a prisoner.

For all his talk, Orion Halen did not seem overly sentimental about his people after all, even though Kaia looked visibly uncomfortable with the direction the conversation was going.

"What did the sim say?" Tetha asked.

"Still running. I'm putting it through ten thousand iterations this time. Just in case."

"Don't take too long," Orion said. "We can spare a few more."

He glanced at his female. "You should go rest, Kaia."

She sat on a high stool near the door, picking at the limp salad he'd brought for her.

"Stop the simulation," Tetha set the tablet aside. "It will not work."

The human looked mildly offended. "What makes you say that?"

"The plasma markers are through the roof. It will induce a cytokine storm in the subject."

"Maybe an uhyre subject, but human physiology?—"

"I will record modifications to the compound that you will try next," Tetha said flatly. "You will move directly to human testing."

"We should sim—Don't you flick your claws at me. I've been doing this a?—"

Threxin cleared his throat, drawing the human woman's inflamed glare as well as Tetha's amused one toward him.

"You will synthesize the compound Tetha instructs. You will conduct simultaneous tests on three prisoners."

The human pressed her dark lips into a thin line and shoved her hands into the pockets of her dusted green jacket. Her attention slid to Orion, who looked less pleased about witnessing Threxin execute his authority than the prospect of using three humans as test subjects. Threxin wondered if he would care should one of the humans be his own sire. No matter—Per Halen was still safely tucked away in isolation, waste of resources that he was.

"I will require more blood for the subvariant batch," Tetha glanced at Kaia.

Her mouth twisted into a wry smile. She cut Orion off before he even spoke. "It's fine. I've had an electrolyte drip."

"We'll need more exorin too."

Threxin began to reach for the set of empty tubes.

"Not from you," Tetha cut him off. "I need a diluted sample."

Threxin halted, looking to Orion Halen, who was already coming up behind his female in her seat, slinging his arms over her sloped shoulders and resting his chin on top of her head.

"We're almost there," he muttered to her. "This might be the one. Just a little longer."

She nodded under his chin, curling her hand around his forearm across her chest. She ran her nails along the length of his arm lightly, then harder. Threxin could just imagine how such an act would make his spikes tingle—and it did, judging by the flash in Orion's eyes. Orion tightened his hold, squeezing her harder into the plane of his chest.

Tetha observed all this with mild curiosity. The other human appeared more used to such "extraction," watching them blandly with a test tube in her hand.

Kaia Halena paid them no mind as she took Orion's other hand in hers and guided it to her lips brazenly. He pressed his mouth into his female's hair, and when she curled her lips around his finger and sucked he inhaled sharply, closing his eyes.

Threxin's nostrils flared, his limiter humming a warning. That could be him and Alina Argoud, just as soon as she stopped being stubborn.

"I want to run," Kaia Halena mumbled, barely audible, with his finger on her tongue, and Threxin's groin tightened with the memory of what he witnessed with Alina weeks ago in the blood passages. He'd ached to slam into Alina right there as they'd watched the scene from the shadows. Threxin swallowed and saw Orion's throat begin a similar motion before he caught himself and held out a hand over his female's shoulder with an impatient flap of the fingers.

Priya stepped forward and dropped the flask in his hand.

"Thanks, baby." Orion let his wife suck most of the saliva off his digit before extracting it from her mouth and patting her cheek.

"No problem." Kaia tilted her head back against his chest. Threxin felt compelled to both stare and look away as Orion Halen stroked her curls flat along her scalp in soothing motions, even though they kept bouncing right back up as soon as his palm had passed over, refusing to conform. That must be very annoying.

Not as annoying as the hair clump in Alina Argoud's eyes.

Threxin focused on the plan. Tetha clearly had an idea of what the compound required. This was promising. Once it was done and tested on less important subjects, if Alina could see reason, she would be the first to take it. Perhaps he should tell her…

No. It would be best to wait until success was in firmer grasp.

And if the vaccine failed? Shoq, how he wished he could just stop caring and take her like the animal he'd thought her kind was when he first took his Colossal . Who really cared if she was mad at him?

Threxin forced the image from his mind, wiping the fresh exorin that pooled through the seam of his lips as he exited the lab.

The count of humans from the common deck being treated up on the command deck was precisely seventy-five. In addition to that, twenty had eventually been transferred from the medbay to assigned cabins on the command deck.

Threxin had allocated extra medicinal and nutrigel rations for the ill, digging dangerously close to the end of their coffers. But the supply delivery timeline and logistics were being finalized, and that would replenish their stocks.

Threxin had originally planned not to contact Alina until he could meet each of her demands—after all, what was the point of chiming her before he had anything to show for it save for some relocated commoners? But she worked daily at precisely the dock the shipment was set to arrive in. Logically, not using a valuable resource for the sake of a grand gesture made no sense.

That night, Threxin stood in the middle of his overly large living quarters, evaluating his planned approach several times too many. Finally he activated his comms adhesive and opened a link to Alina Argoud.