Freeing Luka: The Clecanian Series Book 2 by Victoria Aveline (readict books TXT) 📕

bear Clecanian children but also to call forth our long-dormant mating instinct. And finally, three: to decide the best way to move forward with the rescued human females and how to proceed, now knowing what we know.”

The Queen stayed silent a moment longer, allowing for her words to sink in. “I’d like Luka to begin by recounting everything he has learned about the Insurgents from his investigation before being taken and anything he can remember after. Any piece of information might be enough for us to learn where their other locations are.”

Luka nodded, eyes flashing to Alice before settling on his tightly clasped hands once more. “Well, to start, they don’t have an official name. They have a code, sort of like a motto they use to identify each other. Before my…detainment, Helas taught me the code. They clasp forearms and say, ‘Purity. Reform. Integrity. Clecania.’ And I learned Helas was in contact with many other facilities. Outposts, he called them.”

Lucy began to snicker, and quickly covered her mouth. Everyone’s eyes focused on her, and she held up a hand. “Sorry. Sorry. It’s just…” She gave another small chuckle. “They call themselves PRIC?”

Jade and Alice began to laugh, but the aliens remained silent, seeming confused.

“On Earth, ‘prick’ is a slang insult. It means small penis,” Jade said, her shoulders shaking with repressed laughter.

Rhaego quickly stifled his deep laugh in a cough, and even the Queen’s mouth twitched in amusement. Luka’s lips stayed thinned, his jaw still clenched.

“How fitting,” the Queen began. “Metli, could you please make a note about the change of nomenclature? Moving forward, it seems only right that we use the name they’ve chosen. They’ll be referred to as PRICs or Insurgents.” She gave another brief nod toward Luka and said, “Please continue.”

“I wasn’t able to learn much before he figured out what I was doing, but he did show me five to six monitors with live feeds of incarcerated beings, held in other outposts. Mostly human females, but some Clecanian males and females as well.” Luka cleared his throat before continuing, “He inferred they’d emptied their cells of all non-human species since they felt they’d found what they were looking for in the humans.” His voice grew distant, and he shifted in his seat. “I don’t know what was done with the others.”

Pricks, indeed.

Alice studied Luka. His emotions were mostly hidden, but she thought she saw guilt lurking in his eyes. Even after his harsh treatment of her a moment ago, she felt her heart go out to him. He must know he couldn’t have saved them.

Verakko chimed in from next to her. “The ability to display other facilities’ vids means the outposts were connected. I tried to hack into the system after Jade was rescued and then again when Alice escaped, but in both cases the connection had been severed. They must have had a failsafe in place.”

Luka’s deep voice rang through the room, making goosebumps erupt over her skin. “From what I saw, their technology is outdated. I’m not sure how long they’ve been active, but it looked like the vast majority of their tech hasn’t been state-of-the-art for fifty years, at least. Early on, they were even using plain metal chains to tie me down rather than magnetic until…” His jaw clenched again, and he kept his stare trained on his hands. “Until they broke.”

“When they took me, they told me their organization had been active for a hundred years at least,” Jade confirmed.

“I’d like for you to continue looking for any trace of a signal. Just in case we missed something,” the Queen said, addressing Verakko.

“I’ll keep working on it, but even if I were to somehow gain access,” Verakko began, “I still wouldn’t be able to pinpoint their locations. It’s likely they’re frequency hopping multiple times per second. Without time, copious amounts of money, and unlimited resources, there’ll be no way for me to trace the signal to a physical source. Unless they were dumb enough to label each station link with its geographic location, we’ll have access but won’t be able to lead a team to rescue the captives.”

Another moment of silence passed, in which Alice caught Luka’s gaze. There was an answer staring them in the face, so why hadn’t anyone mentioned it yet? “Helas probably knows where the other outposts are.” Her stomach turned sour at the mention of his name.

Luka flinched almost imperceptibly as well.

The Queen let out a long sigh. “As of this morning, he has been less than forthcoming with that information.”

“I could make him talk,” Theo said gruffly, gripping Jade’s hand.

If Theo’s admission had affected the Queen, she didn’t show it. “We don’t know the extent of Helas’ reach. It’s clear the Insurgents have many powerful people working with them to have remained undetected this long. Helas is currently being detained at an undisclosed location, but there could be Insurgent moles lurking anywhere. For all we know, they could decide to destroy the outposts and start from scratch if they think we are getting too close. Keeping things quiet is our best chance to find the outposts and free the prisoners without any fatalities. All mention of the PRICs, humans, mating, and outposts needs to be contained to this room.” She turned her attention to Jade. “Does anyone else know about your pregnancy?”

The woman to Jade’s right answered before Jade could. “Wasde, from The Intergalactic Alliance, and Reana, from The Galaxy Supervision Federation, were both present for the announcement of the sex. They are trusted friends of mine and have sworn to keep what they know to themselves until we’ve decided what to do. In the meantime, they are thinking through actions plans of their own to bring to their superiors, when the time is right.”

The woman turned her attention to Alice and Lucy. “My name is Asivva, by the way. I’m a