Fencer by Viola Grace Page B

women’s segment of Janial Prison was segmented into pods. The pod you were in depended on how dangerous they thought you were.
    Meena was in for systematically torturing a noble of the Nyal Imperium. Her pod mates were not pleasant, but she managed to hold her own.
    Three weeks in, something peculiar happened.
    She was sitting with her back to the wall, drinking a cup of water, and the droplight went on.
    She immediately discarded her cup and went to defend whoever was being deposited in their pod.
    After her own traumatic entrance, she had taken it upon herself to help ease the new arrivals into Janial.
    Sure, they were usually horrible women, but it gave Meena something to do as the days flowed into each other.
    Every now and then, women would disappear in the night, and it was thought that they had finally gotten their court date even though everyone feared that they were taken for another purpose.
    Meena brushed off her bodysuit and moved to intercept the incoming newbie. The woman that came down was definitely not going to become an inmate unless the dress code now allowed for armament.
    The woman was standing calmly, her bodysuit was heavily armoured and knives were strapped to each thigh. Her face was hidden with a mask, and her eyes were a strange mix of gold and red.
    Her smile was genuine, though her body was alert to attack.
    “Meena Colou? I am here to retrieve you on behalf of the Nyal Guardians of Yacaro. Will you come with me?”
    Meena didn’t need to be told twice. She didn’t care if human experimentation was waiting for her, she wanted out.
    “I am Hawk, by the way, and you have an appointment with my teammate’s brother.” Hawk reached out and the drop ray reversed, lifting them back up with a metal plate beneath their feet.
    As they rose, the plate cut the effect of the beam off. No one could follow.
    Meena didn’t say a word until she was scanned out twice and belted into a shuttle. “I have an appointment with who?”
    Hawk prodded the man next to her, and the shuttle moved away from Janial at a rapidly increasing pace.
    Hawk turned in her seat. “One of your kind is on Yacaro, and she has the peculiar ability to see a person’s destiny and create a piece of artwork depicting the moment it goes from happenstance to locked in. This is the image that she provided for her brother-in-law.”
    A screen in front of Meena lit up, and she was standing with a blade in her hand, a man stood behind her, his right arm around her torso and his left holding a matching sword. The shocking thing was that there was a smile on Meena’s face.
    She stared at the man’s silvery grey skin and red-on-black eyes obscured by tattoos that ran from forehead to cheek. His hair was black, and his features were sharp and had the look of a mythical demon of Earth. “What is he?”
    “A Genaran. The natives of Yacaro. You will learn all about them from Rhoda. I have no doubt that she will tell you all you could possibly want to know.”
    Meena blinked. “Oh. Um. Okay. How long until we get there?”
    “Under is going to run us through a few jumps, but I would think it will be less than four hours.” Four hours. Not enough time to run, so she had better just see where she was going. She smiled ruefully. A man who was going to slice her up so he could rape her didn’t make her run, but the thought of that man holding her so tenderly and her not knowing anything about him made her want to jump the ship and fly it for Alliance space.
     
    They went through an immigration protocol when they got close to Yacaro. Hawk did all the speaking, and then, they were cleared to land.
    “You need a medical workup, but the Genarans will take care of that. They have their own med facilities.” Under finally spoke in a deep, booming voice.
    “But I am not a Genaran.” She bit her lip as he turned to look at her with an amused expression behind his mask.
    “You will be.”
    Hawk elbowed him and not another word was spoken as the