Kwaide (The Ammonite Galaxy Series, Book 2)

Chapter Seven

Chapter 7

SIX LOOKED AROUND. He was on some sort of a spaceship.

“You can’t keep me here,” he said, although he seemed to be alone.

“And why not?” the voice that answered him was that of his non-favourite teacher, Atheron. Six looked again, more carefully this time, and his eyes found the camera and speakers where the voice of his old teacher had come from. He remembered when he had been taken as a donor apprentice and realized that he was on an orbital platform. He was being held in one of the cells. He groaned. “Not you again!”

“You didn’t enjoy the years of learning we shared? How disappointing! I must make a mental note to make my classes more interesting to the students, mustn’t I?” Atheron managed a smug kind of chuckle. 

“Well, don’t think you are going to teach me anymore. I absolutely refuse to learn one tiny bit more from you.”

“How interesting. You are rather assuming that I … err … might be interested in teaching you something. And I am afraid that is no longer the case. My energies are fully engaged elsewhere at the current time.”

“Thank Sacras!”

“Dear me. Your association with so many perturbed people seems to have left its mark on you.”

Six narrowed his eyes. “You remind me of the Elders,” he said.

“Why thank you, Six.” Atheron’s voice sounded rather metallic through the speakers, but he appeared gratified by the comment.

“It was not a compliment.”

“Really? How strange.”

“Why are you holding me here?”

“You are safely stowed where your great friend Arcan will be unable to get his hands on you.” Atheron was pleased with himself.

“There is nowhere in the system where you can keep Arcan from finding me.”

“I am willing to bet you are mistaken there. I don’t think your new friend can travel to places he can’t see. And I have taken great care to make sure nobody knows where we are.”

“I am on the orbital module above Kwaide!”

“Quite so. But your extra-system friend will have to move very quickly if he is going to find you here.”

“You underestimate him.”

“Oh, I don’t think so. He is, after all, only a non-Sellite.”

“And I suppose you think the Sellites are superior to the rest of us?”

“And you don’t?”

Six stared at the speakers. “I hate the Sellites! What have you done to my sister?”

“I? Why? What should I do to your sister? She played her part very well, don’t you think?”

“Are you trying to tell me that she was the one who drugged me? I don’t believe you!”

“Believe what you want.”

“Why are you holding me here?” Six demanded.

 “It seemed a good idea at the time,” the voice from the speakers said slowly. “Though I am beginning to regret it. It might make more sense to kill you directly.”

“Just you try!”

Atheron sighed, “I would advise you to keep a civil tongue in your head. You are hardly in a position to do otherwise.”