Tishla's Journey (Beyond Amargosa Book 2) by TS Hottle

Author:TS Hottle [Hottle, TS]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: anonymous
Published: 2023-07-19T23:00:00+00:00

They shoved Jeris’s head into a bucket of water. The human woman, Celine, circled her while two Gelt Warriors man-handled her.

“This can stop now, you know,” she said, almost in a whisper. “We know your anatomy. Fill the sinuses with water, and you think you’re going to die. Isn’t it funny how your skulls are almost identical to those of humans. Or Orags. It’s almost as though we share a common ancestor.”

The Laputans did, of course, Tishla knew. In most primate cultures, at least those the humans and Gelt knew of, creation stories told of the first people on a given world being molded from clay or sometimes hatched from an egg, the point being a particular species had been created from the homeworld’s native soil. If a race was either seeded or transplanted, however, it was said the first of the species was birthed or created in the heavens. The Orags took this to mean that they themselves were alien in origin, a theory confirmed upon first contact with sapiens, what Colt’s species called themselves. The Laputans…

The Laputans also believed the Unseen created them in Heaven and took the lack of an evolutionary tree on Laput for their own species as proof of their creation story as scientific fact. Even in the modern era, many Laputans refused to believe that none of their genetic material came from their homeworld, that it contained strands from humans, from the vampire-like Qorori, and even the Gelt, along with a few races neither species had encountered. So, the golden giants turned out to be human as well. Or derived from humans. As a result, the structure of their skulls made water boarding an option.

Tishla watched with a certain stoicism as Celine shoved the golden woman’s head into the water once more, then yanked her back by her hair.

“I didn’t want to do this,” said Colt, standing next to Tishla as they stood behind a two-way mirror. “In the Compact, they could execute me for it. Military abuse, we call it. It’s one of only two exceptions to the ban on capital punishment.”

“You realize we are neither Realm nor Compact,” said Tishla. “For what it’s worth, Colt, I happen to agree with your laws. But while this is an option, I need to exploit it. I’ve got thousands people of two competing species to keep alive.”

Colt pressed his lips thin. “I am doing this for you, my lady. I’m not sure I’d do it for anyone else.”

Tishla turned to him and said, “I wish you were Gelt.” She wanted to clamp her hand over her mouth. She meant to promise him that this would be the last time she would allow anyone on Hanar to be tortured. “I mean…”

Colt’s cheeks reddened slightly, and he said, “Sometimes, I wish you were human.”

They heard a splash and turned back to see Jeris trying to catch her breath.

“I’ll talk,” she gasped.

Celine nodded, and one of the Warriors toweled off Jeris’s head.

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