Chapter 34

Tanell led us through a series of passageways until we reached a room where a pale looking young woman waited, seated at a table.

“This is the Cure?” she asked.

“Yes, Renna. Please treat him with respect. Remember, he is your only hope,” Tanell replied.

“I will, father. He is not unpleasant to look at. Who is the woman though?”

“My name is Janilla. I’m an Imperial bodyguard,” Janilla replied. “Cures are an irreplaceable Imperial resource. These days they do not travel unguarded when out of the Empire.”

“I see. Is it your intention to ... watch this curing of me?”

“No, a privacy screen can be in place,” Janilla shrugged.

“That is satisfactory, thank you.”

“I will be in my office. Let me know when it is done,” Tanell stated and, with a slight nod to his daughter, left the room.

“Shall we begin?” I asked Renna.

“Yes, please.”

Janilla set up a privacy screen blocking her view of Renna and me, though I suspected she could scan through it to prevent any kidnap attempts. I reached out for Renna’s hand and led her to a small bed in the corner of the room and sat her down next to me.

“You know what it is I have to do?” I asked.

“Yes, father was very ... specific.”

“Have you ... indulged before?”

“Yes, though please, do not tell him that.”

“Don’t worry, I won’t. Any idea who poisoned you?”

“Yes. The Regnat has several factions. The second most powerful being the Gerrasi Combine; it is they who did it, though the mechanics of how are still being investigated.”

“I’d have your agencies check out your ... boyfriend. These things usually require close physical contact,” I shrugged.

“Oh ... oh surely not!” she gasped.

“I may be wrong, but you need to check. After all, he may be infected too.”

“I will, thank you,” she replied, looking rather stunned.

“No problem. Now, may I kiss you, to start the process working?”

“Oh, yes, please,” she murmured shyly as I leaned forward to kiss her softly, making her relax and almost flow into an embrace with me.

Renna was definitely very eager to be cured, as it were, and her clothing came off almost at a touch on my part. This was followed by my own as we passionately kissed and caressed each other. She was, due to her illness, painfully thin, but not to the stage of being anorexic and looked quite delightful as she began to writhe in ecstasy when I manipulated her clitoris with two fingers, bringing her to a swift climax.

“Ohhhh!” she almost sobbed. “I ... I had no idea.”

“It gets better with practice,” I chuckled. “But Cures have a bit of an advantage with our gift.”

“It’s how I’d hoped it would be,” she gasped. “But never was.”

“Going to get better,” I replied and dropped my head down to slide my tongue into her pussy, making her back arch as she gave out a strangled squeak of total surprise.

Renna was easy to please, orgasming to the lightest of touches once aroused and it wasn’t long before I was able to slip into her, bringing her to another climax. Such was her enthusiasm that holding back was never going to be easy, but I did try and brought her to several climaxes before releasing into her with a heartfelt moan of my own.

“Am I cured?” she asked once she had come down from her height of passion and dressed.

“Yes, though naturally you’ll want to be checked out by your healers,” I replied.

“No need,” she countered. “Room, am I cured?”

“You are, Blademistress Renna. All the traces of genetic abnormality are gone and your body is resetting to Regnat acceptable norms,” came a harsh voice.

“There is no way I could trust a healer with this; the Regnat is a very competitive and ruthless society. Word would have got out eventually,” Renna explained.

“Someone out there will know and, eventually, will wonder how you got it fixed,” Janilla shrugged as Tanell entered the room and looked at his daughter with joy.

“I believe I know who and how,” Tanell replied to Janilla.

“Who did this to me, father?” Renna asked.

“Your lover, Killan,” he answered to Renna’s suddenly shocked look. “Yes, I knew. But I was young once myself and he appeared genuine enough, at least until this happened and he vanished. He may have been an innocent dupe himself and merely disposed of, unfortunately.”

“Oh, father, I’m sorry,” she sighed.

“If he can be found we will question him. However I’m beginning moves against the Gerrasi Combine for their temerity as I cannot accept their attack against you and your status,” Tanell replied in grave tones. “As for your ‘shame’, as I said, I was young once myself and it is how I got to know your mother,” he finished with a chuckle.

“Really?”

“Yes, although she’ll deny it.”

“If we’re finished now?” I ventured into the conversation.

“Yes. Thank you, Cure David. I’ll arrange to have you escorted back to the corridor to the port,” Tanell replied, then paused. “Oh ... seems we have ... visitors. This may take a while, as the Gerrasi Combine have thrown caution to the wind and are mobilising the Debation Mandate to demand a genetic test of you, my daughter. We must attend to the Heralds of Demand, now.”

“We can wait,” I shrugged, seeing Janilla nod.

“Come with me,” Tanell requested and led us to a comfortable room with food and drink laid out. “You will be safe and undetected here whilst this matter is sorted.”

Tanell and Renna then left, presumably to prove she was not genetically degraded, whilst Janilla then did a scan of the room before moving to a corner where she could observe all.

“Isn’t politics fun,” I chuckled as I handed her a plate with a few items on it.

“Yes, these people are not to be trusted though. We are now a loose end,” she replied gravely.

“Yes, though I believe they’ll try to honour their word. The guards we beat up, less so,” I observed.

“Ah, you believe they may have leaked the information that there was something going on?”

“Only the ones we really offended,” I grinned, getting one in return.

“True and I suspect they’ll attempt to get at us as Tanell is sure to find out. He appears to have a lot of sources of information.”

“Hmmm, let’s hope they don’t, but prepare for such an occasion anyway,” I agreed.

“Yes, keep to the sides of the room and let me do my job,” she replied with a thin smile.

“You just want all the fun for yourself,” I chuckled, but moved anyway.

As it turned out, events took a dark turn. The wall opened to reveal Tanell with Renna supporting him. He was bleeding from a cut to his brow and looked decidedly wobbly on his feet.

“My enemies are mounting a coup,” he stated as I helped him to a couch. “An unholy alliance of houses that will fall apart soon, but for the moment they are hunting my forces down and looking to eliminate me and hence you.”

“Do you need to escape?” I asked.

“Yes,” he answered finally, after mentally going over his options (I presumed).

“Take us down to that corridor. We’ll deal with anyone who gets in our way,” I replied, getting a nod from Janilla.

“This way,” he pointed as another wall opened, revealing a flight of stairs leading downwards.

Janilla led the way, moving swiftly and silently ahead of us whilst Renna supported her father and I brought up the rear, keeping an ear out for anyone following. We soon started passing bodies, most dressed in a pattern similar to Tanell and were presumably guards or retainers. All showed signs of violence and I could hear Renna trying to hold back sobs.

“Guards ahead, dressed in green and blue piping on their sleeves,” Janilla informed us as she ghosted back into view.

“Valdorf Combine, they were the ones who started the shooting,” Tanell half moaned.

“Also the ones who killed these people,” Janilla informed him. “They were openly boasting of it.”

“We will make them pay!” Renna snarled.

“Calm yourself, daughter. Such an event is unlikely if we are forced into exile,” Tanell warned.

“They did mention a holding room where they had prisoners for transfer,” Janilla added.

“I don’t suppose I could prevail upon you?” he asked.

“Is there somewhere we could leave you hidden?” I asked.

“Yes, a power distribution room ahead. We should be safe there for a while, until they begin a methodical search.”

The room wasn’t hard to find and Tanell still had access to various of the Regnat’s features. We left him with Renna after opening the room’s aid kit for him and showing her how to apply the various medications. Janilla and I slipped out and went hunting, she in her hologram disguise, me keeping quiet and out of sight until she was ready to act. Finally there was a strangled scream from ahead which had me racing towards a set of body-armoured guards who were currently distracted by an invisible yet deadly attacker in their midst. It didn’t take me long to be mixing it up myself and I had three of them down and out to leave the corridor clear for the moment.

“Good work,” Janilla noted as we headed back to get Tanell and Renna.

“Talented amateur,” I chuckled, as Janilla had had four of them down by the time I got there, along with another five during my own fight.

“Nevertheless, you did well.”

“Thank you.”

Tanell was walking a lot easier once we collected him and Renna and made our way to the holding room where he ordered his followers to go to the transit hub and make their way to his southern estate. We got their help to drag the bodies into the holding cell to keep them out of sight for the moment. After that we prepared to go to the safe house where we could gain access to the port. Both Tanell and Renna had armed themselves with hand weapons from the fallen guards when we moved them, though neither Janilla nor I had bothered as they were keyed to Regnat genomes and wouldn’t work for us. I did pull on parts of their uniforms though to disguise my outline as we headed to where the doorway into the port was.

The exit was guarded. They’d also extruded a barrier, presumably to prevent anyone sniping at them, though Janilla and I had yet to fire a single shot.

“Can you get in amongst them?” I asked Janilla.

“Yes, give me a couple of rotations and then approach, act wounded and you might get close enough to get in between them,” she advised.

“Can we help?” Tanell asked.

“Once we start, pick off any at the periphery and then get the door open.”

“We’ll do it.”

Janilla then ghosted her way to the now fortified exit, giving her the minute she wanted I then staggered into view and collapsed slightly before crawling towards the barrier. This drew an immediate response, as three of their guards approached, only for chaos to erupt behind them as the invisible Janilla rapidly took two of them out whilst I sprang forward to bring down the three approaching me, driving my fist into the throat of one whilst the other two tumbled and were brought down by two rapid shots from Tanell’s beam pistol.

I then raced into the distracted melee where Janilla was keeping almost half a dozen of them at bay and started dealing out my own blows. Tanell and Renna moved in to pick off the ones on the edge of the fight and open the exit door. This caused further confusion for them as Kirim waded in, having obviously got bored waiting for us and enabled us to swiftly finish the fight.