Zhiva knocked the back of his head softly against the wall a few times and pinched between his eyebrows. "No wonder."
"Wonder what?"
He pulled himself forward on the bed and sat on the edge, studying me for a while before answering, "Guess what I heard from a dying Satesian then?"
"What?" I asked.
Why would anyone listen to their dying enemy?
"He said the cyborgs are going with them," Zhiva said.
Zhiva looked dead serious about the reference to Trey and I.
Someone lying might stare or look away at a crucial moment when our eyes meet. Not even a flinch from Zhiva when I looked him in the eyes.
No flared nostrils, lip biting, rapid blinking, or sweating to show signs of lying.
Zhiva seemed like he was telling the truth, but I couldn't trust him.
"Go where?"
Zhiva cocked his head in the hall's direction and said, "those dead prisoners were scheduled for a drop off on a desolate penal colony. No one cares if they live or die there."
His face grimaced when mentioned the penal colony. He fidgeted for a moment after dropping this surprising news on me.
I never knew how the Great Swirl Council used penal colonies.
For me, I kept out of the law's way with only the occasional fine over something minor on the planets, like a small brawl. Nothing worth their while using a big bio-scanner which landed me here.
A first time for everything, as they say, including my stay in the Ultramax. Zhiva reacted like the penal colony was bad news.
The Great Swirl Council's territories stretched across a large part of the quadrant. Hundreds of viable planetary systems under their member species' control in the vast expanse of space. And they had over fifteen species as members.
Even in my lifetime, I would only cover less than half of their territories with most of my trips to Eden for resupply. I stuck mainly around Nuwan territories or the Narakan system.
"No one cares? Won't it be easier to escape from the penal colony?" I enquired.
Zhiva suddenly sat up with his eyes wide opened. "Are you NUTS? Convicts run those penal colonies. Automated landing and entry sequences to the hard-to-reach areas. Those ain't planets with hospitable environments. So if you blow up the place, casualties are your fellow convicts."
I guess he took the legend of the exploding Kamuy seriously to rattle off the information.
The most is a primitive planet with no tech or infrastructure. Surely the Great Swirl Council didn't leave them on some uninhabitable planet.
"Now, for example, there's the Hadean colony. Temperatures on the surface are so hot that your blood boils. They live underground where the temperatures are barely bearable," Zhiva continued.
Ok. The Council dumped them into near-uninhabitable planets. Why would they waste an inhabitable planet?
Then he mused for a bit. "There's Elysean, an underground colony too. Radiation flares from the red dwarf, enough to melt any of us down."
The mention of the radiation flares reminded me of the old red dwarf in the now extinct Kamuy system. Amatsubune and our ships played hide and seek behind the cover of the planet whenever the sensors detected flares.
Hiding from flares was better than draining our shields.
"Continue," I pushed on for more information.
"Jovean, basically with flooded terrain. Heck, the whole planet's a flooded mess, and the colony is on a large rigged platform. No land in sight. Topping it off, big nasty sea creatures circling those platforms."
I wondered if he was exaggerating because his description made it sound like falling into a black hole would be a better deal than suffering in those awful conditions.
In fact, the Ultramax felt like a paradise now.
"There are a couple more others. No one who enters a penal colony on a planet leaves there even in death. Your body stays and rot there, or they feed the creatures with it," he added.
"Why are you telling me this?" I leaned forward to look him in the eyes.
"Because eventually, that would happen to us when they need room in the Ultramax," he replied with surety. "This Ultramax is more of a holding area."
"But Trey and I are only accused of minor crimes. Why would they put us into the penal colony?"
"How to kill a person without ordering their death - they loaded the penal colonies with the worse scum of the universe. The few political prisoners and dissenters, accustomed to a cushy life, won't survive the conditions for long."
"How do you know all this information if no prisoners made it out?"
"Our dear late father is the general," Garan interrupted, now fully dressed, walking into the cell with a big yawn and a stretch of his arms. "What he knew, we knew. Vice versa."
"Plus, we are space pirates. Even if he didn't give the information, one of us would steal it from him," Zhiva added.
Benefits of having relatives in high places, I guess.
"Reports on those penal colonies… supplies and when to hijack… you get the drift," Garan quipped. "Those supply ships make the best pickings."
"Finished so soon?" Zhiva asked.
Their eyes turned at the now dressed Durgian woman, who blew them a kiss and licked her lips before going on her way.
"I'm sleeping here tonight," Zhiva said.
"She swallowed everything," Garan retorted with a look of satisfaction. "I made sure the bitch didn't spill."
My stomach churned at the thought of what Garan did. I didn't need or want to know the details.
"I'm not sure how Kamuy reproductive systems work, but if you need…" Garan offered, giving me a once over with his lecherous eyes.
His eyes felt like they were stripping my clothes off.
"No thanks." I refused the offer out right.
Goodness knows how many rounds the woman did in the Ultramax, but my anatomy had no need for her.
"I thought you wanted her exclusive?!" Zhiva complained.
Garan shrugged. "Exclusive for my use. I can offer her up."
"Yeah, but I'm your brother."
Garan gave me a perverted grin. "But I wanna watch him fuck her."
I showed no reaction, much to his disappointment.
Typical gaudy jokes between males, nothing unusual. Play along to avoid any inkling that I am female. The idea of being Garan's experiments or exhibit really sounded nauseatingly unappealing.
"WHY HIM?" Zhiva hollered, pointing at me.
"Whatever," Garan said, ignoring his outburst while taking a seat next to Zhiva. "I never seen a cyborg fuck before."
He turned to Zhiva and slapped his shoulder playfully. "Or maybe those cybernetics eliminated the need for such… physical relief, right?"
Zhiva peered at my face, incredulous, and asked, "is that true?"
"Yes," I replied without hesitation.
Truth be told, our cybernetic implants can squash any sexual desire quickly if it arose. Add on the eugenic engineering of my brain cells, the eugenics scientists hot-wired me to think of more killing than fucking.
Zhiva crinkled his nose at my answer.
"No chance for you. Told ya this one's a stiff," Garan slipped his arm around Zhiva's neck and arm locked him while rustling his hair playfully.
Zhiva struggled, clawed and squirmed to get out of his hold.
"Lockdown of cells will commence shortly. All prisoners are to return to cells." the Ultramax's automated speaker system announced, disrupting the roughhousing of the two Perunian brothers.
Garan released his hold over Zhiva and said, "Alright, two of you lovebirds, get the fuck out of my cell."
"Screw you. I'm sleeping here tonight after what you did on my bed," Zhiva argued while I slowly snuck away to my cell.