Overseer's Chain

  Manipulating files gets her attention of the alien overseer, and his fascination with her is mutual.

  Isabella is an excellent assessor, and she can put the right human in the right job without hesitation. When one of her little file manipulations gets the attention of the overseer, she is summoned to his offices and faces a harsh sentence.

  Bound to the overseer by cuffs that keep her at his beck and call, Isabella gives him the details on human interaction while changing plans for her people with miniscule nudges.

  Iktabi has been in charge of Imrahl since it became a viable outpost. Waiting for his own mate has been an exercise in patience. When Isabella ends up in his office, he knows his match when he sees it, but the paperwork is a nightmare.

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  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  Overseer’s Chain

  Copyright © 2017 Viola Grace

  ISBN: 978-1-4874-1053-7

  Cover art by Angela Waters

  All rights reserved. Except for use in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part in any form by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, is forbidden without the written permission of the publisher.

  Published by eXtasy Books Inc or

  Devine Destinies, an imprint of eXtasy Books Inc

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  www.eXtasybooks.com or www.devinedestinies.com

  Overseer’s Chain

  Brace for Humanity Book 3

  By

  Viola Grace

  Chapter One

  Isabella Thems pounded her fists on the inside of the column around her. She was encased in fluid and a breathing apparatus was on her face, but she wanted out.

  She clawed her way to the top of the tank and groped around for an exit. A grate came to hand, and she pushed and pulled on it. It swung free, hanging into the tank. With her fingers clawed, she hooked into the grating and pulled herself out and through the hole, ditching her mask when the tubes tangled and tugged.

  The air around her was dry, but as she pulled herself out of the tank, it was a welcome relief. She flopped on the edge of the lid and looked around her.

  “Oh. My. God.” The aircraft-sized building she was in was filled with tubes, and each tube had a human body in it. Some were male, some were female, but they were as far as her eyes could see.

  The railing around the top of her column was her only support as she gripped the metal and tried to come to grips with what was happening. She shivered as her skin dried. The substance she had been soaking in absorbed into her body without a trace.

  There was no one around. It was like these people had been put into storage and simply left there.

  Isabella shivered again and looked down to the floor. To her surprise, the clothing that she last remembered wearing was folded neatly on a table resting against her tank. If she could get down, she would no longer be quite as vulnerable.

  She heaved a deep sigh and stepped over the railing, holding it tight as she reached down with her right foot. She crouched to lower herself as much as she could, applauding herself for every yoga class she had ever taken.

  Her arms shook when they took her weight completely, and she dangled both legs in the air, three feet above the ground. Another steadying breath and she dropped down to the cold, hard floor.

  The tube she had been in was now support until she was ready to grab her clothing and shoes. Her heart pounded, sure that someone or something was going to come charging at her, but nothing did.

  She pulled on her underwear, jeans and the cotton shirt she had been wearing when she remembered everything going black. The only thing missing from the table was her phone and the music device she had been listening to. On a final inspection, even her watch was gone. Everything she had that connected to the internet was gone.

  Isabella finished tying her shoes and looked around for anything that would show her the way out.

  Three columns over, there was a wider lane. In most warehouses, the wide areas were for transport, so it was probable that it would lead her out. She was willing to work with that theory.

  She walked through the eerie forest of naked bodies in tanks. Every nationality was on display, every skin colour was accounted for. What struck Isabella as she walked through them was that all of the bodies were in perfect shape. There was no bruise, no scar, no discolouration on the skin aside from natural pigmentation. It was creepy.

  With a sense of dread, she crouched behind one of the tubes and pulled up her sleeve. She swallowed. Her surgical scar was missing from the back of her wrist. The four stitch marks that had seen a decade of fading were completely gone.

  She rotated her wrist and didn’t feel the telltale crunch that her limb had previously had. She would have to get naked to check for the other scars and that wasn’t her highest priority.

  She stood up and started to move again. Another twenty rows and she would be at the flat wall that had to contain the door. She had no idea what would be beyond that, but she was willing to find out.

  Isabella counted down as she made her way on silent feet. She was four columns away when the wall opened. She hid behind the column and listened to the voices of the folk coming through the doorway.

  If they were human, she would say they were male. The sound was rough with a lot of soft sounds mixed in. She got the feeling that if she listened to it just long enough, she would be able to understand it.

  The footfalls that had come in with the voices faded as the men made their way into the storage facility.

  Silence surrounded her, and she moved into a crouching position, heading for the doorway. They had left it open, and she could hear a whole other universe outside that door.

  She would be exposed in the last three metres, but she was going to have to chance it. She straightened and walked calmly through the doorway and out into the shadows beyond.

  Walking took a lot of effort, but she kept going with confidence honed on vacations alone overseas. If you walked like you knew where you were going, even if you were completely lost, you could pick the person you wanted to ask for help from at your leisure.

  Isabella exerted superhuman effort when it came to keeping up her determined pace. The sky was wrong, the sun was wrong and the moons were wrong. Everything was wrong, and unless she was locked in a cinema somewhere, she was on another world.

  She stopped on a hill and looked over the bustling construction below. This was another world, those were alien buildings, and she was the only human awake out of a multitude of thousands.

  The scuffing of feet behind her warned her that she wasn’t alone.

  “Miss Thems? You are an early riser.” The voice was a clear, low rumble.

  She nodded. “I always have been.”

  She turned and tried not to flinch. The man was tall, his features were reminiscent of a feline and his skin was a silvery hue.

  “I expect that you have questions.”

  “I do. I expect you want me to be somewhere other than here.”

  He smiled and his eyes showed his amusement. “
You are correct.”

  “Will it hurt?”

  “No, Miss Thems. We did not bring you here to injure you.”

  Isabella nodded. “Right. So, lead the way.”

  He inclined his head and offered her his arm. “Place your hand on the back of my wrist please. It will let the others know that you will not run.”

  She placed her hand lightly on the back of his sleeve. The tunic he was wearing was reminiscent of military uniforms at home, or at least ones for formal occasions. The colouration was a pale grey that usually was saved for medical personnel.

  “Why are you speaking English?”

  “I am not. You are hearing it. While you were in the tank, you were given some subliminal education. It will take a while before your mind can access it without thinking.”

  “So, what am I speaking?”

  “Rrassic Common. We have a division of seven different branches of our people here, plus those like myself.”

  He was walking her away from the hangar and to another building that had the squat security of a hospital or a prison.

  “Am I in trouble?”

  “No. You will just be educated earlier than the others. You will be our test case.”

  “That sounds horrifying. What is your name?”

  “D’mere. Nool-Rrassic.”

  “What is a Nool-Rrassic?”

  His lips quirked. “I have not yet reached full maturity. When that happens, I will evolve into one of the other races.”

  “So, Nool-Rrassic are teenagers?”

  “They are unevolved adults. Miscu are the children, but you will not meet any of them here.”

  “Why not?”

  “This is an outpost. There are no families here.”

  They entered the squat and blocky building. “What is this an outpost for?”

  He sighed. “We are at war, and we need your help.”

  With a statement like that, she was willing to listen. This was going to be interesting.

  The physicians were also Nool if their skin was any indication. They ran non-invasive scans on her and took a few blood samples. When that was over, she was led to a boardroom, the lights were dimmed and a lightshow began.

  Holograms were still not in popular use on Earth, but here, it made her wonder if she could sneak a device home and have it reverse engineered.

  She sat for hours as the history of the Rrassic was unfolded in front of her, including their war with the Yoboth and their attempts to get out in front of the wave of destruction approaching their home.

  Somewhere, out in space, a warrior race was out to destroy the Rrassic, and when they finished with them, Earth was on the list of what to attack next.

  When the lecture was over, Isabella sat back and pinched the bridge of her nose. “That is pretty heavy. Why am I the only human out and about?”

  D’mere chuckled. “You are an early riser. It happens in every hundred thousand cases.”

  “Wonderful. What do I do from here on out?”

  “Well, first, we will get you a meal, and then, we will work on training you to catalogue your people’s strengths and weaknesses. You will help us prepare job placement for your folk around the world.”

  “I am fairly sure that not all of them are going to want to believe or cooperate.”

  “Of course, they are not. With few exceptions, each of those taken has family or friends whose safety can be leveraged. We are in desperate need of assistance here, and your people can provide it, while preparing for their own attack.”

  Isabella blinked and stared at him. “That is your plan to gain our assistance?”

  He smiled tightly. “On those other worlds on the list, we have tried convincing, requesting and simply stealing, but threatening hostages is the most effective method to gain compliance.”

  “That is really rude.”

  D’mere shrugged. “It is what it is. Now, let’s get some food in you. It won’t do for our first human to collapse on her first day on Imrahl.”

  He offered his wrist again, and she took it. What other option did she have?

  Chapter Two

  Isabella smiled as the familiar face left her station for a life and job at the port of Imrahl. Sure, it was technically cheating to put in a physical allergy that Lianne didn’t have, but if it let her adapt to her new home, Isabella would risk it.

  Lianne was her fourth redirect. It wasn’t going to be forever, but some women just weren’t up to staring up at one of the Rrassic as he tried to court them.

  When the next human sat across from her, Isabella was all business. Twila Mirkin was a definite farmer, and she had no problem working the fields as long as her family was safe.

  Isabella gave her her living assignment and the transport slip that would get her out to the farming area. The look of disgust that Twila shared with her as she walked away was just one more for Isabella’s collection.

  She checked the roster for the day and sighed in relief as her last appointment of the day left the building.

  She stretched and shut down her terminal. She bent and hid Lianne’s data chip under her heel. She hopped up and down in place until she felt the crunch.

  “What are you doing?”

  She turned and saw the Luthin-Rrassic, D’mere; she felt a little guilty. “Um, I was just trying to get my legs ready for the walk back to the admin quarters. Sitting all day makes me a little twitchy.”

  “Right. Before you can leave, you have been summoned to the overseer’s office.”

  Isabella paused. “What?”

  “You have been summoned to the overseer’s office.”

  “Why?”

  “He didn’t share that information with me.”

  “Just let me grab my bag.”

  “Now, Ms. Thems.”

  He rarely used that tone with her, so Isabella stepped to his side. In the last six months, she had watched him go from Nool to Luthin and only a request to the previous overseer had let him do his training here on Imrahl. He was an excellent friend and a great sounding board.

  She walked the halls of the admin building and kept her hands folded in front of her. She was wearing the standard long tunic of the human administration staff and leggings that ended at her low boots. The broken chip under her heel dug in with every step.

  “How is your training, D’mere?”

  “It is going well. I can disappear at will now, but holding it is difficult.”

  She smiled. “I am sure you are doing amazingly well.”

  He chuckled as they passed a few of the Zjin-Rrassic guards in the hall to the overseer’s offices. “You have a lot of faith in me.”

  “Well, you are my first friend here. Having faith in friends is always a good thing if they have earned it.”

  “Don’t flirt with me.”

  She wrinkled her nose. “I wasn’t. So, what is the new overseer like?”

  A deep voice boomed out. “Right now, he is irritated. D’mere, leave her with me.”

  There was one Dorbin-Rrassic on Imrahl, and he was looking at her from the doorway of his office. Her fingers tensed on D’mere’s arm, but she let go and folded her hands at her waist. “Overseer.” She inclined her upper body.

  “Cataloguer Thems. Please come this way.” He turned, and his large wings blocked the doorway for a moment.

  She glanced at D’mere as she passed him and sighed to keep her calm.

  “Close the door.” He settled into place behind his desk.

  His chair had to be custom made because those wings would preclude him using one with a standard back.

  Isabella closed the door behind her with a click.

  “Sit.”

  There was a chair across the desk from him, and she moved forward, settling down in a prim manner with her hands on her knees.

  “Cataloguer Thems, you are one of our most accurate assessors.”

  She stared into his sharp grey features and was taken
aback. That was not what she had expected. “I try and do my job.”

  “You have been doing it very well.”

  “Thank you.”

  “I would like you to go over the other cataloguer files and see who can be assigned elsewhere. The arrivals are almost over, so the intake centre can be reduced to minimal staff.”

  “Oh. Um. Right.” She took a breath. “Can we open more Earth-style businesses? Many of the cataloguers used to work at or run them, and I think it would be an excellent outlet for them, Overseer.”

  He stared at her from solid black eyes. “You want this outpost to be a commercial enterprise?”

  “No, but if the humans had somewhere to spend their extra funds on social interactions and events, it would help with morale, Overseer.”

  He snorted. “Iktabi.”

  “What, sir?”

  “My name is Iktabi. Use it instead of overseer. May I call you Isabella?”

  She nodded. “That will be fine.”

  “Excellent. Now, what are you proposing?”

  “I am proposing that you give folks a chance to make Imrahl their own. If you want humans to settle in and thrive here, they need to engage in social interaction, even if it is the simple action of having a cup of coffee or tea with a co-worker on a day off.”

  He folded his huge hands on his desk. “Do you believe that will stop the attempts at escape?”

  She wrinkled her nose. “I believe it would help a few of those who are undecided. Making this a community will anchor folks.”

  “What about you?”

  She shrugged. “I had a job, and if I was reported missing, police will be on the lookout for my remains. No one is really going to worry about me. I can help with the Rrassic war effort and it won’t cost me any relationships.”

  “What about your work?”

  “I will get a new job when I go home. The delay doesn’t matter, and this experience is definitely one for the books.” She smiled politely.