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  Well, so much for a mysterious stranger challenging my claim to the plants—that’s a relief, anyway.

  Terex kept his blaster ready just in case and walked slowly and cautiously, but the long, straight corridor he found himself in was empty. Empty and completely silent, except for the echoes of his own boots on the stone floor and the soft hush of air through the ventilation system. He thought of what Valdor had told him.

  “I believe that wherever the little healer is being grown it will be only sparsely guarded or possibly even completely automated,” he’d said. “I don’t think Krumf will trust anyone to be in the vicinity of his precious regenerating plants for long.”

  So far it appeared that Valdor was right. There was no one and nothing to be seen until he reached the end of the long hall and found himself in a control area with a bank of monitors and a large, rectangular window in one wall.

  The window showed another room—a much vaster one than he had yet seen down here. In it were rows and rows of plants, growing in rich black soil. Overhead was a system of softly glowing lights, though Terex couldn’t see any watering system, which seemed strange. There was a long, straight mechanical arm with teeth sticking out of it, almost like a giant comb affixed to the ceiling, however. Terex wasn’t sure of its purpose—maybe something to do with the harvesting?

  The controls appeared to be fully automated—a completely stable environment where the plants could grow unmolested and untouched by anyone for however many years it took until they reached maturity. In fact, there was even a harvest button which was blinking green on the panel, right beside a small white fingerprint scanner and a retinal scanning device. Presumably all he would have to do would be to push the button and scan his print and retinal pattern to watch the plants be collected in an orderly fashion.

  Terex’s hand hovered over the button…but then he stopped. He wanted to get a closer look at the little healer plants before he ordered them harvested. Besides, he wanted to pluck a small bunch to preserve and take with him to the palace. Leaving the control room, he stepped into the vast, dimly lit room filled with soil and plants and silence.

  The little healer plants had dusky purple leaves and were about three meters in height, standing in quiet, orderly rows. Each one was just one long stalk about as thick as one of his fingers. At the end of almost every grayish-purple stalk was a single blossom like the one he’d put into the sphere to locate this place—silvery white with veins of bright purple. The blossoms nodded quietly in an artificial breeze sent through the ventilation system and looked like they hadn’t been touched in years.

  “They need absolute silence and a perfectly controlled environment to grow,” Valdor had told him before he left to find the plants. “They’re a genetically engineered organism and incredibly delicate. That’s why Krumf hides them away so carefully. That and the fact that without their distilled essence he will die.”

  “I don’t understand why he doesn’t simply plant a whole other crop of them—hundreds of crops,” Terex had said. “That way he could have as much of their distilled essence as he wanted.”

  “And risk them being discovered and used to cure the Need?” Valdor had shaken his head. “No, he’s too cautious for that. Besides, there’s a genetic instability which keeps more than one crop from growing at a time. So the field of little healers that you find will be the only one.”

  “But even if I can harvest the blossoms before he does, what can I do with them? How can I spread their healing properties over all of Nixelle Prime-Beta?” Terex had asked, spreading his hands.

  “I believe there is a distillery close to where the plants are grown but it won’t be necessary to use it. The blossoms are water soluble,” Valdor replied. “If you can just get them into the cloud system around the planet—even a few hundred over the major cities and urban complexes—their healing properties will enter the water supply.”

  “Spreading the cure for the Need over the entire planet!” Terex had looked at the other male admiringly. “You’ve really got this all worked out!”

  “I’ve been scheming and planning ever since I got home and saw what Krumf has done,” Valdor admitted. “And Krumf bragged to me about most of this himself—knowing full well I couldn’t do anything about it because I didn’t have the right prints and retinal scan to activate anything even if I was able to find where he’d hidden his private garden.” A grimace of distaste crossed his features. “He likes to rub in the fact that he wiped out the Kindred—that I’m a relic, the last of my line.”

  “You won’t be the last,” Terex had vowed. “Not after I spread the cure for the Need over the entire planet.”

  “The Goddess grant it may be so,” Valdor had said.

  “The Goddess grant it may be so,” Terex echoed now, speaking in a whisper, so as not to disturb the delicate blossoms. Before he harvested the little healers, he wanted to preserve some to take with him. He didn’t intend to wait for the cure to the Need to get into the water system—he was going to give them to Elaina and the other females of the harem who had been living in misery and bondage to Krumf for so long, to be certain they were healed immediately.

  Terex walked the length of the huge room, looking for the right bunch of blossoms to take with him. He had put away his blaster and taken out a long knife with a curving blade which Valdor had given him, much like the ceremonial sword he had worn with his Nixian court clothes before Krumf had discovered his ruse.

  He had just discovered the perfect bunch, at the far end of the room, when he saw something that made him frown. In the very back of the last row of plants, a whole swatch of little healers had been destroyed, their dusky purple stems bent and broken, their blossoms torn or missing completely.

  Terex re-sheathed the dagger at his hip and frowned at the wanton destruction. What or who had done this? Had it been the bloody-faced male he’d seen lying dead by the airlock? Had he been injured? Perhaps searching for some healing which had come too late? Terex didn’t know the extent of the healing properties of the plants before him, but he doubted they could cure massive internal bleeding or skull fractures. They seemed to be more geared towards the healing of diseases rather than traumatic injuries.

  As he was bending over the broken plants, considering the possibilities, someone slipped a massive arm around his neck and a deep but somehow familiar voice whispered in his ear,

  “Well Commander Terex, I knew you were looking for me. Isn’t it lucky we found each other before it was too late?”

  Chapter Twenty-five

  “Let me go! Get the fuck off me!” Terex struggled against the massive arm around his throat, choking the life from him. Whoever it was that had him, they must be eight or nine feet tall and built on a massive scale. The hand he could see from the corner of his eye was bigger than his head.

  Suddenly he knew who it was.

  “Two?” His voice was tight and hoarse, a result of the lack of oxygen as the muscular arm cut off his air.

  “You guessed!” Mocking laughter filled his ears and the massive arm relaxed enough for him to breathe, although not quite enough to escape. He couldn’t reach his blaster but Terex thought of trying for the dagger he’d put back in the sheathe on his hip just moments before being caught, but he knew he’d have to be subtle to get it without the giant behind him noticing. Slowly, he began reaching for it.

  “What are you doing here?” he demanded. “How did you know I was looking for you?”

  “Haven’t you Kindred learned by now? I have spies everywhere.” Two’s scion—grown in the flesh vats of the Scourge Father Ship—gave a high pitched giggle, which sounded extremely strange coming from the huge chest.

  “If you know that I’m hunting you, then you know I’m seeking revenge,” he said, still reaching for his knife. He had his hand on the hilt now but he wanted to distract the huge scion before he drew it and went for the kill.

  “Yes, yes, revenge…” Two’s scion giggled again. “I suppose you want to kill me.”