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CHAPTER 1

This is not a love story

It is my life, and as such, there is love, loss, war, death, and sacrifice It’s about things that needed to be done and choices

It’s easy to say that Harder topaths I took to wind up here, and I wonder if there was another road, an easier road, that ends somewhere else Yet it all boils down to a promise

That’s why I’, after all

The La’hengrin have been enslaved too long It’s tie the status quo

But after sixprocedure, I’m ready to tear ate’s office, as if thiswill turn out any different The Pretty Robotics assistant ra off in a fit of rage So far, I’ve been here for four hours I hear a door open and close down the hall, and I recognize the legate as he tries to slide by me

It is around lunchtime, so I push to my feet “How lovely of you to ate Flavius

He’s caught the assignment to deal with all of our appeals, which makes me think he pissed somebody off His favorite tactic is avoidance, but since I’ve caught hi for a centurion to eject ht to be here In fact, I have sorounds for a discrimination suit since he made an appointment, then refused to honor it, as he wouldn’t do to a Nicuan citizen

“Conation

“Where are we going?”

“There’s a place nearby that does an excellent salad, and they have truly superior wine None of the local shite”

Fantastic, so he’s a snob, and he thinks nothing on La’heng could be as good as what they import from elsewhere Iup uments He makes polite, strained small talk on the way to the restaurant, which is atop one of the towering structures nearby The floor rotates slowly, granting a luxurious view first of the harbor, then the governor’s palace in the distance In Jineba, the buildings are like Terran trees, where the rings reveal their age; you can judge a structure’s age by the architectural style and which conquerors designed it The Nicuan occupation results in a series of colonial buildings, where pillars and columns mask the modern heart

The penthouse dining roorin workers instead of bots They take our orders with quiet humility, and I loathe their subservience because someone has ordered them to labor here It wasn’t a choice, and they don’t receive wages Whatever the nobles call it, this is slavery Since hu, this has been the situation on their homeworld; their “protectors” have not treated theed hands multiple times—sold off like a corporate asset—and currently, Nicuan nobles hold the power They treat the planet like a vacation colony, complete with native serfs

Legate Flavius orders for us without asking what I want To a man like him, I suppose it doesn’t matter Once the niceties are attended, he steeples his hands and regards me across the white-linen-covered table “Make your case, then”

“Under the Homeland Health Care Act, ratified by the hu have the right to the best possible treat and not limited to experie created by widespread exposure to RC-17” When humanity seeded the atrin coy It’s been centuries now, and the effects linger still “Therefore, the Nicuan council actively prohibits a treatrin, which is unlawful according to article thirty-seven, codicil—”

The legate sighs faintly “Yes, you’ve inundatedUnfortunately, you haven’t passed licensing through the drug administration As I recall, there have been no trials What kind ofto test your product?”

The kind who rin your slaves, like the ones you have at home

I grind in trials three o They were denied due to lack of residency requirements”

On Nicu Tertius, the slave trade is legal There’s also a complicated caste syste for the e exude a sate is no exception, and it taxes my patience to deal with him

Flavius smiles “Ah, yes Unfortunately, youbefore you can expect to receive rights that come with citizenship”

I want to come across the table and punch him in the face Instead, I bite er into a laser

“I applied for citizenship,” I say carefully “And my request was denied”

The unctuous srettable past makes you rather…undesirable, Ms Jax”