Chapter 61: An Eye For An Eye

"Prepare the ship for my descent, I’m going to fetch my mother."

"Your Majesty, you must wait for her signal."

"My mother is pregnant and has not come to the ship in days, I do not care if she has found friends in this pink skinned creatures, I just want to know if she’s okay."

"Very well, prepare the crown prince for his descent."

The silver hull groaned and came to life as its hatch pried open. A porcelain figure no taller than a large than domestic Christmas tree descended into the starry night sky of planet Earth.

The Vashki adjusted a ring on its neck and glided towards fhe direction his mother had always taken whenever she came to visit and teach him the ways of the ’humans’ as she had called them.

"Residents of this humble...structure. I come in peace with the request of seeing my mother, Tuk’Ina who has been in your custody for weeks now."

Some humans dressed from head to toe in black rushed out, with what Tuk’Aon made out to be their weapons, with it held defensively in front of them.

"I would like to see my mother."

The pink skins stared at him in confusion.

Right.

They didn’t sing the same song as him.

He tried again, this time, using the words his mother had taught him with each of her visit.

"I have come... to see my mother."

"Stand down!"

A woman marched out from behind them. Her dark hair swayed with the night wind as she walked closer to where he floated.

"Are you Sasha’s son?"

Sasa?

Who the hell is that?

"My mother’s name is Tuk’Ina."

Did another of his people come down after his mother did?

Even if they did, he didn’t recognize the name.

"She is pregnant and I must know of her well being as she hasn’t visited our home ship in days."

"You are Sasha’s son! Come down for a moment."

How dare she command him like that?

But he floated down to where she stood anyway.

"Where is she?"

Her eyes shifted in their sockets as she looked around as if searching for his response in the cold wind.

"I will ask again... where is my mother?"

"...your mother was moved by the United government to another facility. She is no longer under my jurisdiction."

What was that supposed to mean?

"Where is she? Your words confuse me."

The woman nodded, "I can show you where she is but I can’t take you in there. They won’t let me have access to her."

Her language was getting too advanced for him so he just followed as she led him away from the building to another large building.

The building was larger than the one Edith had brought him from.

Its walls were made of the same cold grey material that covered most of the human structures he had seen, but this one had no windows. Only a series of bright white lights lined the entrance, flickering whenever the wind pushed dust across the ground.

Tuk’Aon followed quietly.

His little body floated a few inches above the ground, his rings keeping him suspended as he watched the humans move around them. Their pink skin still fascinated him. They were so different from his people, so fragile-looking, and yet they had managed to build structures that reached higher than some of the towers on his homeworld.

Edith walked ahead of him.

She didn’t speak much anymore.

She simply kept looking over her shoulder to make sure he was still following.

Tuk’Aon didn’t like that.

He was the crown prince.

His mother had always told him that people were supposed to look at him with respect.

Not worry.

They reached another set of doors.

Edith placed her hand against a small glass panel and waited.

The doors clicked.

A sharp smell immediately reached Tuk’Aon’s nose.

Metal and something bitter.

He recoiled slightly into himself.

"What is this place?"

Edith glanced up at him.

"A laboratory."

The word meant little to him. He didn’t know what it meant anyway.

He followed.

The moment he crossed the threshold, the ring around his neck gave a faint tug.

Tuk’Aon stopped.

His head snapped toward the corridor ahead.

There.

Something.

His mother’s ring.

He could feel it.

Barely.

It was a sensation he had known his entire life, the quiet pull between rings belonging to family and mates. Usually, his mother’s presence felt warm and steady, like a second heartbeat somewhere beneath his own.

Now it was faint.

Weak.

Almost gone.

His fingers immediately went to the ring around his neck.

"Mother."

Edith turned.

Tuk’Aon was already moving.

He glided down the corridor so quickly that Edith had to hurry after him.

"Hey, wait!"

He didn’t.

The pull became stronger.

Not stronger because his mother was getting closer.

Stronger because something was wrong.

He could feel the distance between their rings narrowing, but her signal remained weak.

Too weak.

He rounded the corner.

A large reinforced door stood at the end.

His mother’s ring tugged from behind it.

Tuk’Aon’s body went rigid.

"She is here."

Edith stopped several steps behind him.

"Wai—"

The young Vashki raised his hand.

His rings brightened.

The metal door shuddered.

The humans inside reacted immediately.

"How dare you hold my mother behind doors like this like she is some animal!"

Tuk’Aon didn’t wait.

He pushed and the door bent inward with a shriek.

The force of the impact sent it crashing against the interior wall.

Glass containers rattled violently.

Several humans shouted.

Tuk’Aon floated through the opening. His eyes moved rapidly across the room.

Strange entities.

Tables.

Screens.

Strange instruments.

Then he saw her.

His mother.

Tuk’Ina was lying on a raised medical platform beneath a harsh white light.

Her porcelain body was covered in restraints.

Thin wires disappeared beneath her garments and connected her to several machines surrounding the bed.

Her rings were dim.

Far too dim.

Her body barely moved.

"Mother!"

Tuk’Aon shot toward her.

A human stepped into his path.

He pushed the man aside with a burst of gravitational force.

The human crashed into a table with a loud scream as his hands folded into themselves.

Another came from his left.

Tuk’Aon spun to face him.

His rings flashed and the man’s feet lifted from the floor.

For a moment, the young prince smiled.

He could fight.

He could protect his mother.

He turned back toward the medical platform.

"Tuk’Aon!"

His mother’s voice was weak.

But it was hers.

He flew faster.

"Mama!"

He yelled, dropping all the formalities and reached for her hand.

Their rings responded.

Her fingers twitched.

Tuk’Aon’s face changed.

The weak pull suddenly became painful.

Something was wrong with the connection.

Something was suppressing her.

"What did this foul creatures do to you?"

Tuk’Ina struggled against the restraints.

"Get away from here. You must leave!"

"No."

His large hands wrapped around hers. Compared to his mother’s they were large.

Her ring flickered.

Tuk’Aon felt the weakness travel through their connection and into his own body.

His breathing became shallow.

His mother’s ring was barely responding.

He looked around the room then back at her dimly lit belly.

"What did they do?"

A slow clap came from somewhere behind him.

Tuk’Aon turned.

A human man stood near the entrance.

He was dressed differently from the others. While the other humans hurried around the room, he simply stood there, watching.

His expression was calm, almost amused.

Edith appeared behind him. For a moment, the man’s eyes moved toward the woman.

Something unreadable passed across his face.

Then his attention returned to Tuk’Aon.

"Is this a kin of yours? A servant? Lover? He looks quite small...huge? Dah, it doesn’t matter."

Tuk’Aon immediately floated higher.

"Stay away from my mother."

The man’s mouth curved. "You came all this way for her, right?"

"She is mine and I will protect her."

A few of the humans exchanged glances.

The man took another step, he read through Tuk’s defensive stance and mapped the situation.

"No one is taking her from you."

Tuk’Aon didn’t believe him, not with the dire state he had seen her in.

His rings began to glow.

The air around him shifted.

Several pieces of equipment lifted from the tables.

The humans hurriedly backed away.

His mother strained against the restraints.

"Tuk’Aon, don’t."

He ignored her.

He was afraid and fighting these creatures was the only thing he understood to be the way out.

His mother was hurt.

His mother’s ring was weak.

First, he would free her.

The first restraint on the medical platform snapped.

Then another.

Tuk’Aon pulled harder.

The metal groaned.

The machines began screaming warnings. A loud noisy sound that seem to scratch the insides of his ears.

Red lights flashed across the laboratory.

The man just kept watching him.

"Interesting."

Tuk’Aon didn’t hear him. He only heard his mother’s breathing.

He pulled again.

The final restraint around her wrist began to crack.

Then something struck him from behind. A burst of electricity surged through his porcelain body.

His rings flickered and his muscles locked.

Tuk’Aon froze.

His fingers remained wrapped around his mother’s hand.

A second pulse followed. Heavier than the last one.

His grip loosened.

His body dropped several inches before his rings caught him again.

He turned his head.

Three humans stood behind him.

One held a long metal device that crackled with some sort of blue energy.

Tuk’Aon raised his hand.

Nothing happened.

His rings flickered weakly.

"No..."

His body suddenly became heavy.

The gravity field holding him failed and he dropped.

Two humans caught him before he struck the floor.

Tuk’Aon kicked wildly.

His heel struck one of them in the chest.

The man staggered and coughed blood, cradling his cracked rib.

The other tightened his grip.

Tuk’Aon screamed.

His rings ignited.

The room warped.

Several objects flew violently toward the ceiling.

A tray shattered against the wall.

The lights flickered.

For one brief moment, the humans lost their grip.

Tuk’Aon fell free.

He twisted in the air and shot toward his mother.

He almost reached her.

Almost.

A thick metallic restraint snapped around his torso and his body jerked backward.

Another wrapped around his arms.

Then another around his legs.

His rings flared.

He fought but the restraints only tightened more.

His porcelain plating creaked beneath them.

"Mama!"

Tuk’Ina struggled against her own restraints.

"Don’t fight them!"

"I’m getting you out of here!"

"You can’t!"

"I can!"

His voice cracked.

He pulled harder.

The restraints didn’t budge.

The man stepped closer.

Tuk’Aon glared at him.

"I will rip your throat out and feast on it while your people watch!"

The man crouched in front of him.

"Yeah yeah, your language sure is complex and I can’t understand you."

He reached toward one of Tuk’Aon’s rings.

Tuk’Aon jerked away.

"Don’t touch me!"

The man stopped. Then he smiled.

"I have an offer."

"I offer you only death... a gruesome merciless one!"

"If you can tell me where your home planet is, I’ll let you and your mother go."

Silence.

Tuk’Aon didn’t understand.

"What?"

"She stays here because no one knows where she and you people came from. You know."

The man glanced toward Tuk’Ina.

"Tell him Sasha, tell him what I just said."

That name again.

"He’s asking... for where Qashka is... don’t tell him!"

"I won’t tell you."

The man looked almost disappointed.

"You haven’t even heard the full wager."

Tuk’Aon’s rings trembled.

"What wager?"

The man leaned closer.

"You tell me where your people live."

His gaze shifted briefly toward Edith. Then back to the young prince.

"And I’ll make sure everyone knows you as allies of Mother Earth."

Edith’s expression changed.

Only slightly.

But Tuk’Aon noticed.

The man continued.

"Refuse, and your mother stays here and your people will be targeted by us, Earth."

Tuk’Aon stared at him.

"He says if you tell him where Qashka is, he’ll let us go and won’t make us a target by their planet."

"The fall of this foul creature!"

"I can’t understand you, big guy, speak English."

The man stood, "But you have nothing to lose by believing me."

Tuk’Aon looked toward his mother.

Tuk’Ina’s eyes were fixed on him as well.

She shook her head.

Barely.

Don’t tell him.

Tuk’Aon understood.

His eyes lowered.

The man turned away.

"Take him somewhere quiet."

The humans began dragging Tuk’Aon toward the opposite side of the laboratory.

He fought again.

"Mama!"

Tuk’Ina strained against the restraints.

"Tuk’Aon!"

His little body disappeared behind a partition.

The last thing he saw was his mother’s hand reaching toward him.

Her ring flickered weakly.

Then the door closed.

And for the first time in his young life, Tuk’Aon understood that his mother’s ring could be felt from a distance... but it could not tell him whether she was safe.