Chapter 9

"Why am I learning how to fight with a knife?" Jorie said to Dothan.

"Knife fighting builds mental strength and coordination. It teaches one to overcome the fear of death and to fight it," Dothan said.

"I hope this hurts you more than it hurts me," Jorie said. He looked at the stone face of the royal and admitted aloud, "probably not."

An hour later, Jorie sat on the table in the med lab enduring the application of strips of skin melt. Mista was taking her time and trying to be gentle.

"You get a little better each time, Jorie," she said. "You have far fewer cuts."

"Your boyfriend is sadist," Jorie said.

She snorted with derision and refused to comment further. They had been through this particular conversation every day for a month and Jorie received no sympathy for his complaining.

"Come with me to the mess. Dothan and I are ready to explain where we're going," Mista said as she slid the melt kit back into its drawer. "It's time to let Kita in on our secrets."

Jorie sat down next to Kita who was busy with a computer manual. Dothan and Mista sat down opposite of them. For all of the luxury of a royal yacht, the ship was rather small.

"Finally we have human mapped coordinates for the Cha'ortha number system that Mista retrieved from the Citadel," Dothan explained. "We are heading to a planet outside of human space."

"Do you think the Cha'ortha still live?" Jorie said.

"I pray every day," Mista said. "I want to believe that my people survived the Vizz."

"Why do you keep talking about the Vizz? We slaughtered them a hundred years ago," Kita said.

Jorie shook his head.

"We didn't defeat the Vizz, Kita. We rescued the species that the Vizz had enslaved by exterminating them."

"We committed genocide against an alien race and didn't kill the Vizz?" Kita said.

Mista stepped into the conversation.

"The Vizz are a parasitic species. They live in the bodies of compatible biological entities and take over their brain functions. The Vizz conquer those species with whom they can meld and destroy any species that aren't compatible. The only way to rescue your attackers was to end their misery because we have no technique that purges the Vizz from their host species. The Vizz are insatiable in their aggression. They may have exterminated my people and they tried to destroy humanity because we are not meld-able."

"I understand that," Kita said. "What I don't get is why you need Jorie?"

Mista smiled. "The Cha'ortha were on the same evolutionary path as the Vizz, although we chose to keep our bodies, usually."

"You are Cha'ortha so you say," Kita said. "Your body is human."

"I took a human body," Mista said with a shrug. "I stole this person's body and extinguished her life. I'm a murderer by your standards. However, I am or was the only bridge to the knowledge base of the Cha'ortha. They should have defeated the Vizz, but didn't. If we can find my people, perhaps the combined efforts of two species can defeat the Vizz."

"Why Jorie?" Kita asked, insisting.

"Jorie was chosen to become a disciple of the master Cha'ortha. He is the new human-Cha'ortha bridge that we are creating. I took him to the Citadel to receive his training, which he is now learning to use, carefully, under my direction."

"I'm sleeping with an alien hybrid?" Kita asked with a touch of anxiety in her voice.

"He fights like a human, he whines like a human, and he eats like one," Dothan said.

"I guess he fu..." Kita began to say until Jorie cut her off.

"Let us agree that I'm far too human and there are some things that we don't need to share at this table."

Everyone else chuckled at his discomfort.

Jorie dismissed their ribbing with a wave of his hand.

"How long until we get there?"