Jazon: An Omnes Videntes Novel Read online

  “I already told you. What? Are you stupid? I went to get my father’s notes. They were stolen.”

  “How did you know where to find them?”

  Tracy told him about her father’s stylus. She wanted to go home where she could feel safe, but it had been sold, and everything was gone.

  “Who do you think stole your father’s notes?”

  “Duran Jarreau, my new stepfather. I remembered a fight I had overheard between them while I was searching Jarreau’s home office for information for an application. He had some of father’s files. They should have been at the academy, not in Duran’s desk. I searched for father’s vid-pad to see if it was at the academy or in storage. Those were the only places it should have been.”

  “But, you found it in a forested area all by yourself?”

  “Yes! What’s it to you?” Angry at his tone, Tracy shoved at the hybrid’s chest.

  She wanted to get away from him before he either stole her mind and soul and made her his slave, or went into a mad rage and tore her limb from limb to feast upon her flesh. A disturbing thought occurred to her. What if he was really the one in charge of that lab? The hybrid could be controlling Duran’s mind. He could be forcing the scientists to grow the clones to satisfy his hunger for humanoid flesh. It was like a movie she and Jaimie had snuck out to see. Horrified, Tracy screamed.

  “Would you shut up? I don’t eat humanoid flesh and neither do my brothers. I’ve never created mindless hordes to do my bidding. You are a stupid little girl, and I find your thoughts offensive,” Jazon said.

  “Then, stay out of them!”

  “Fine!” Jazon took Tracy by the arm and led her back to her confinement cell. He shoved her into it and raised the shield.

  “What are you doing? You can’t leave me in here! I’m not a criminal!”

  “Yes, you are,” Jazon said with his hands on his hips.

  “No, I am not!”

  “I caught you after you had broken into a private bunker.”

  Outraged, Tracy said, “You broke in, too! I locked the door behind me!”

  “I’m an Imperial Guard on a sanctified mission from the Parvac Empire with Galaxic Militia approval.”

  Tracy didn’t know what to say, and it didn’t matter anyway. The hybrid walked away.

  As the hours passed and no one came to check on her, Tracy’s bladder couldn’t take anymore. Around the waste unit, there was no privacy screen. No one had been by her cell, so she hurried to pull down her pants and sit on the waste unit, pulling her shirt down as far as possible. Feeling better physically, even though she had been forgotten, Tracy tried to find a comfortable position on the berth where she began reading through her father’s last notes. Most of it was beyond her, but what she did gather from it was that he had figured out how sea stars were able to program their stem cells to differentiate into the cells they needed to regrow limbs. He had begun studying how to apply that knowledge to help people who had suffered from traumatic injuries.

  “Oh, father. All you wanted to do was help others.”

  Her father hadn’t been after a profit. He wanted to learn from nature how it healed itself and apply that knowledge.

  “If the serum I tracked with nanite technology and your father’s research were combined, it would triple the speeds of current tissue regeneration therapies,” Jazon said.

  The hybrid had set Tracy’s heart to pounding in fear. “Do you have to sneak up on me like that? And, stay out of my head!” Tracy lifted her knees up to her chest defensively.

  “I’m not going to hurt you. I came to ask if you are calm enough to eat at the table, or if I should bring food to you in here.”

  His smug, arrogant tone pissed Tracy off. If her father’s vid-pad wasn’t so important to her, she would throw it at his stupid face. “Well, are you letting me out or not?” she asked.

  “We can see how it goes. Behave, or I will turn you over to the Enforcers on Epopeus. Follow me.” Jazon walked off.

  Tracy followed the hybrid to the habitation area. As they walked past the sitting area to a kitchen and dining section, hope filled Tracy at the sight of two males who were sitting at the table. Then, after looking at their eyes and the sheer size of them, she realized they were both Parvacs.

  “Oh, stars. I’m trapped on a ship with a hybrid and Parvacs,” Tracy mumbled under her breath.

  Hearing her, Jazon smiled sweetly at her and said, “Remember, Tracy. There is always an airlock available for your convenience.” Then, he pulled out a chair for her.

  Warily, Tracy sat. The Parvacs were even bigger than the hybrid. She knew about the Peace Treaty of Amphictyon, but she had heard just as many horror stories about Parvacs stealing women as she had heard about hybrid monsters. Jazon grinned and slid a heated meal across the table to her. Not having eaten anything since the previous day, she was starving. Her mouth watered at the sight of the steak and baked potato. She remembered having skipped dinner but wasn’t sure how many other meals she had missed.

  “Breakfast,” Jazon said around a mouthful of steak.

  Tracy glared at him. “Stay out of my mind.”

  “I can’t. It’s what we filthy hybrids do.”

  The Parvac to her right laughed. “I take it your Laconian women don’t find you as fascinating as our women do?” Captain Agata asked.

  “No. This one thinks I’d rather eat her legs than what’s between them,” Jazon said.

  The Parvacs laughed with him. Tracy turned red. She knew about what they were talking. Jaimie had told her. Strass had never done something so embarrassing to her. Their times together had always been quick, and they had always remained partially clothed for fear of being caught. Jazon winked a solid black eye at her. Tracy ate quickly, hoping she would be taken back to her confinement cell.

  Instead, Jazon said, “You can use my shower. I’ll put some clothes out for you. Make yourself useful. Clean and store these,” he said of the dishes.

  The two Parvacs looked at him askew and did their own dishes. Tracy sighed. Even captured by aliens, it seemed her destiny was to do dishes. She had spent more time doing dishes than anything else in her life. At least there weren’t hardly any to do. Her little brothers could dirty a dozen different things in a blink. She forced herself not to worry about them. Angelica was a trained nanny from a prominent facility. The boys probably didn’t even realize their older sister had been kidnapped by a blood-thirsty hybrid and deadly Parvac soldiers.

  “Boo,” Jazon whispered beside her ear.

  The word, along with the way his breath moved her hair, made Tracy scream and jump. The container she was holding fell from her fingers. Jazon caught it before it hit the floor and stowed it. Loud male laughter followed.

  “I didn’t realize that Laconian females were so timid. Reports of Isidora Montgomery had led me to believe quite the opposite.”

  Tracy stared at the soldier. He grinned back at her.

  “This one is going to be trouble. I can feel my hybrid senses tingling in warning,” Jazon said to Lieutenant Vasco.

  “Don’t think to jeopardize our mission, young lady. This isn’t some frivolous whim for us. Innocent lives and our fragile peace are at risk,” Captain Agata said.

  “Go shower. I’ll make up the couch for you,” Jazon said. He walked away from her with his arms full of blankets and a pillow.

  “You don’t have to sleep on the couch. I will share my bed with you, Lady Tracy,” Lieutenant Vasco offered.

  The Captain had already taken the lift up to the bridge. Tracy assumed his quarters were near it.

  “Correct,” Jazon verified.

  Tracy frowned at his back, narrowed her eyes at Lieutenant Vasco, and went into Jazon’s quarters. She locked his door. She felt more herself once she was clean. After drying her hair as best she could, she used the hybrid’s comb. Why anyone would go to the trouble to create such an annoying sentient, she didn’t know. He was rude, temperamental, bossy, and terrifying.

  She pic
ked up his toothbrush and was about to give it a dip in the waste unit when he said into her thoughts, “Don’t even think about it.”

  With a snap of sound, she placed it back where she had found it.

  Chapter Four

  Jazon had been failing at all of his efforts to stay out of Tracy’s mind. He continued to slip comfortably into her thoughts. Instinctually, he had offered her empathic comfort during her moments of intense grief and fear. At first, her irrational fear of him had been a jarring reminder of why he and his brothers had avoided contact with Eriopis and Enyos. Both of the Laconian races could sense the duality of their hybrid natures. Laconians could discern their unnatural differences and knew with certainty that they had been genetically altered to allow their survival. It was a good thing they didn’t understand how much more powerful those genetic manipulations had made them.

  Their father had come close to perfecting his new race of children with Izaac’s batch, 019. Izaac and his pod brothers, Rozz, Zam, and Traviz, were the strongest of them. Batch 021 hadn’t been as fortunate. Of them, only Jezzie remained. Jazon thought it was because their empathic abilities had been too strong.

  Now, here Jazon was, alone in the Laconian Sector without his brothers, where just about everyone would see him as Tracy did. The hard part was not just suspecting their disgust, but being able to both feel it and verify it in the thoughts they believed they blocked from him. He finished making up the couch for his reluctant guest. He, Agata, and Vasco had agreed that she would have to remain under guard until the mission was complete. It would be too simple for an Eriopis male to pluck their identities and their mission from her mind and jeopardize everything.

  He felt her approach and turned. Damp black hair fell to her shoulders. Big black eyes were in a pale, delicate face. Her arms and legs had the same white skin, like cream. Aurilius existed in a state of perpetual twilight and darkness, being as far as it was from a sun. Jazon wanted to look at her on the sandy beaches of Epopeus and began wondering how to manipulate events in order to make it possible.

  “Um, ah, here,” Jazon said as he pulled back the covers.

  Tracy hurried past him and crawled inside of the blankets. She looked so small in his shirt. Jazon moved to tuck the blankets around her. Tracy slapped his hand.

  “Well, goodnight,” Jazon grumbled as he stormed off to his quarters.

  Tracy watched his back as he walked to his room. She pulled the covers up under her chin and looked around at her unfamiliar surroundings while attempting to fall asleep.

  Even though he was annoyed with the female, Jazon gave her nervously flittering mind a gentle nudge to sleep. Then, he changed into some exercise clothes and went to the small gym to work out. Sleep wouldn’t be coming as easily for him. He’d have to exhaust himself.

  The next morning at the dining table, Captain Agata said quietly, “We have discovered that the nanites being used to send the differentiating commands to the stem cells are provided by a small company that attempts to compete with Bosh Technologies.” He took a sip of coffee and then finished off his eggs. “Vasco and I will go in, place an order for medical nanites, and plant listening devices. While you draw all of the attention in the merchant district, we should be able to catch them off guard.”

  “What are you going to do with her?” Vasco asked.

  “I’ll keep her with me. What do you think of that, Tracy? Do you want to help bring your father’s killers to justice, or will you hide under your blankets, pretend to be asleep, and eavesdrop on our meeting?” Jazon asked.

  Tracy froze for a moment before she gave up on her ruse and sat up. With wary glances at the men watching her, she wrapped a blanket around herself and walked to the table. Jazon returned his attention to his breakfast. He felt an unwelcomed pang whenever he looked at her pale little face, messy black hair, and big black eyes. She looked like a real version of one of the little dolls with which Neema played.

  “May I get you some breakfast, Lady Tracy?” Vasco asked with a charming smile.

  “Yes, thank you.”

  Jazon glared at the man while he prepared Tracy’s breakfast. Vasco planned to win Tracy for himself. It filled Jazon with unmitigated fury because part of him longed for her acceptance. Parvacian society had accepted him. Occasionally, Parvac females would give Jazon considering looks, but they didn’t mesmerize him the way mean, judgmental little Tracy did with those big black eyes of hers.

  “What are you staring at?” she asked snottily. Jazon glared at her, too. He cleaned and stowed his dishes and returned to the gym. Glad he had gone and taken his unnerving stares with him, Tracy ate her breakfast. “Why do I have to go with him? I can be of more help at the nanite company.”

  Captain Agata said, “You need to remain with Jazon so that he can shield your mind. Those instrumental in the creation of the clones whom we seek will know that you are Dr. Heintz’s daughter. Should someone recognize you, Jazon will sense it, and we will have a new investigative lead.”

  Vasco refilled her glass of juice. “Why are you so hard on him?” he asked.

  “He’s a hybrid.”

  Vasco waited for her to explain.

  “He’s dangerous and unstable,” Tracy added.

  “You are a scientist, are you not?” Vasco asked.

  “I completed my oceanography degree.”

  “As an educated individual, perhaps you might consider making your own observations of him rather than operating under the assumption that those childhood tales told in the dead of night at sleepovers are fact. Yes, he is a dangerous adversary, but his service and loyalty to the Empire are worthy of respect, not childish censor and hostility.”

  Tracy felt her cheeks begin to burn. “My father taught me that such genetic manipulations go against nature.”

  “Without him, how would we battle against the truly unnatural clones that are being created and used to murder, deceive, and insight war?”

  “So, you think it takes a monster to defeat a monster?” Tracy asked.

  “He isn’t a monster. He is a highly evolved warrior, and in my presence, you will treat him with the respect his rank deserves. Is that clear?” Captain Agata asked. Tracy stared at the male and clutched her blanket tighter. “Vasco, we have work on the bridge.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  The men left, leaving Tracy to finish her breakfast in peace. In the hybrid’s room, she found her clothing, clean and folded. She got herself cleaned up, her hair tamed, folded her blankets, and stacked them on the couch with her pillow on top of them. On the habitation deck, her movements hadn’t been restricted, so she went exploring. The open kitchen, dining, and living space butted the hull where two viewports provided a view of passing stars. Tracy didn’t recall the stars passing by quite so quickly on the trip to Epopeus on which she had gone with her father and his research team a few years ago. On that trip, she had gotten to assist in collecting research samples.

  Tracy remembered smiling up at her father as warm waves tickled her knees. Specks of white sand and water droplets had clung to his protective glasses as he had helped her place the sea star into its container. She fought back against her sorrow. She wanted to make whomever had taken him from her and her brothers pay, even if it meant cooperating with a hybrid and a couple of Parvac soldiers.

  She walked past the two doors leading into crew quarters and along a short corridor. There was a medical bay, storage and laundry room, and a gym. The other rooms were sealed. She entered the gym. Jazon was occupying the corner to her right. His back was turned to her and covered in a sheen of sweat. In his hands, he gripped a horizontal bar. Slowly, he lifted his weight until his head was above the bar before slowly lowering himself. He repeated his actions. His feet were crossed at the ankles and held away from the decking. Mesmerized, Tracy watched as he lifted himself yet again using only the strength of his arms. Muscles rippled beneath his tan skin. A line ran down the center of his back to disappear beneath the waistband of his exercise shorts. Liquid h
eat pooled involuntarily between her legs. Strass was downright feminine compared to this male.

  Jazon dropped to the flooring and turned. “What?” he asked.

  Tracy had forgotten why she had been looking for him and instead focused on his etched stomach muscles. Confused, she turned around and returned to the small sitting area. After she had gone, Jazon grinned. Her mind and mouth said no, but physically she wanted him. There was hope he could win her. He decided to make an effort to be shirtless around Tracy as much as possible while docked on Epopeus. After his shower, he found her seated with a stiff spine on the couch watching a documentary on the wall-mounted vid-screen. Lieutenant Vasco had deactivated its communications functions as a precaution.

  “Have you decided to assist us in our investigation?” Jazon asked.

  “How do I even know that I can trust you?”

  “What? Would you like to see our service records?” Jazon asked sarcastically.

  “Maybe, I would!” Tracy snottily replied.

  “Fine!” Jazon stormed off to his quarters and returned with his vid-screen. “I’m watching you. Don’t try anything,” he warned as he thrust the device at Tracy.

  She shot an annoyed look at him and then began perusing the files. First to appear were Captain Agata and Lieutenant Vasco. The men had been in the Inquisitors’ Branch of the Parvac military since they were her age. Then, she saw Jazon Ponidi of the Omnes Videntes, an Imperial Guard to Princess Probus of Parvac. Serious black eyes peered back at her from the screen. He looked proud and deadly in his black uniform trimmed in silver. Neat medals and ribbons decorated his chest.

  Contritely, Tracy said, “Okay. Maybe, you are who you say you are.” She handed the vid-screen back to him.

  Jazon sat down on the couch beside her. “Lady Tracy, our goals coincide. Let us seek justice together.”

  Surprised at his sincerity and sudden display of manners, Tracy turned to face him. “Whoever killed my father made it seem as though he died of natural causes.” The memory caused her pain.