Chapter Twenty One
The Xypher Zone Prison for Persons with Double X Chromosomes
Jenna and Sardius spent their time waiting for the prison transport to come get them by trying to hide that they had ever been there, while simultaneously ruining that plan by fooling around in every room of the house.
“Do you think there are cameras in here?” she asked after a particularly passionate encounter.
Sardius snorted. “No. Cameras are for two things: video evidence and porn. Whoever owns this house would not be interested in either one of those things. You don’t build a house on a River Moon in the Xypher Zone for a long list of reasons. This house doesn’t have labs, so science is out. It was built for privacy and privacy only. The more I think about your theory, I think you’re absolutely right. We were put here on purpose. Maybe they put you here to let the radiation kill you, but maybe they put you here because they know about your little jewel and they’re testing it to see if it repels radiation.”
Jenna swallowed.
“I also think,” Sardius continued, “that this house was built by someone who thought they would be able to get a shield up that would be strong enough to withstand the Crying Sun’s radiation. If they could get a field up that worked as well as the jewel in your crown, they could use this place as the perfect landing pad to appear when they arrived in the Xypher Zone. Then they wouldn’t have to deal with the radiation under their shield when they were only going to be in the Xypher Zone for as long as it took to prepare to bleep back to normal space.”
“So, Rold Xant is responsible for us being here because he saw the jewel in my crown and guessed how it could be used? Then he shifted me to the Xypher Zone to test his theory? Then why wouldn’t there be cameras?” Jenna fussed. “Wouldn’t we have arrived exactly at the castle if that were true?”
“Not necessarily. It’s not a given that Rold knows everything. Maybe you were supposed to arrive at this castle, but his lackeys (or his masters) messed up their math. As for the cameras… Who needs a camera? Either you’re dead or you’re alive. No further questions. They’re not going to be sitting around wondering how you died of radiation burns…” Sardius’s voice trailed off.
Jenna felt her heart sink. “Well, then I guess that answers my question.”
“What question?” Sardius asked.
“You know… Why the Hipposyphis gave me this jewel? They want to trust me with this insane secret because they want me to be the loose end that betrays them so utterly that they’ll have the perfect excuse to go to war with the Adamis who are openly threatening me. When I put it that way, I don’t know if we should go back to Octavia Prime. I lived just fine on Earth for decades without anyone bothering me.”
Sardius sighed. “Yeah, except the two hundred plus Adamis dudes who tried to kidnap you.”
“What did you say?”
Sardius straightened his back and asked clearly, “Do you want to go back to living on Earth?”
“I can’t go back to being an Octavian diplomat if they’re going to use me like this!” she yowled.
Sardius put his extra hard arms around her. “I’m going to help you,” he promised.
“How are you going to do that?” she sniffed.
“I’m going to get that jewel off your crown,” he said steadily. The look in his eye was the look of a daredevil who wasn’t afraid of anything. “Not now because it’s saving your life, but when we get back to Octavia Prime, I’m going to get it off. I can do anything.”
Jenna believed him and she had every reason to because that was the moment where the prison transport landed and the prison warden came out to meet them.
***
Jenna didn’t realize she had an idea of what the prison warden looked like built up in her head just from hearing her voice. Jenna was imagining a woman of a certain girth, with fleshy hands and a slight double chin who didn’t take any crap from anyone. Jenna certainly wasn’t expecting what she saw when she met the woman.
Her name was Irid and she was bonier than Sardius. Besides being lean as a tree, she had bones protruding from her cheekbones like the ones on Sardius’ knuckles. She also had bones protruding from every knuckle in her fingers instead of just the knuckles of the four bones in her fist like Sardius. The thing that surprised Jenna the most about her was that she had no breasts. Her chest was flat. The reason was clear instantly. Everything that was on the outside of Jenna's bones was on the inside of the bones of a Boneman.
“Nice to meet you,” Jenna said, extending her hand in a distant wave for Irid. “I need to thank you again for your support when I was looking for new PAs. Especially, I need to thank you for giving me Conrad.”
Irid smiled. She had very red eyebrows on bone-white skin. “My pleasure.”
But it was clear from the look on her face that the real pleasure for her was seeing Sardius. Her eyes ate him up like he was the kind of man who could be feasted on for days.
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He cut the talk short by moving things along. “Is there any possibility we’d be able to meet Ixy, Ivy, and Conrad while we’re at the jail?”
Irid nodded to Sardius. “For now, I’m to tell you that Ixy has sent info to your men asking for aid. A ship with dimensional shifting should arrive soon, but until then we have some time to kill. If you want to meet your brats, I suppose I wouldn’t mind, as long as it amuses you. I’m sure you know that prisoners in the Xypher Zone never get visitors.”
Sardius nodded, and without showing any reluctance, boarded the prison transport ship. It was every bit as formidable as Sardius promised it would be, but he managed to get Jenna onboard without any awkwardness. Her force field didn’t come anywhere near the driver or Irid. The vessel was large enough to accommodate her.
When Jenna and Sardius were in the back of the transport, she leaned over and whispered in his ear. “It’s nothing short of a wonder that you’re attracted to me.”
He looked at her with a clenched jaw and a sharp look in his eyes. “You mean because you don’t look anything like Irid and she’s the first female Boneman you’ve met?”
Jenna said yes and frowned.
He took her hand and kissed the back of it. “It isn’t just how you look. It’s everything bad and everything good at once. Because our bodies are so different, being with you is forbidden in one way. It’s allowable in another way, but it isn’t a wise decision to get together with someone with such a different body. For another, you represent power. Being a man who has claimed power over you is pretty hot.”
“Saying all that makes you sound–”
He interrupted, “I haven’t said what makes you good.”
“Those were the bad things?” she exclaimed in surprise. “You’d better go on.”
He put his arm around her shoulder. “You are a furiously good person. You don’t always get painted that way by the media that talks about you, but you are. That’s why the average Octavian likes you so much. They’re wild about you because they can see the humor, the humanity, and the goodness the Adamis don’t care about. It’s so adorable when the Octavians act out whatever you did last. When I was recovering after I had my leg cut off, I watched them cry on docks all over their media channels, like how you cried for me when I left. It was amazing.”
Jenna kissed him.
Then she leaned back in her seat. “I’m really excited to meet everyone. What do you think they look like?”
“Well, Ixy and Ivy are Bonemen too, aren’t they?”
“She said they were.”
“Then they won’t be a surprise… for me. And what’s Conrad?” Sardius wanted to know.
Jenna shifted in her seat and tried to recall if Conrad had ever identified himself as any race of Adamis.
“I don’t think he’s told me,” Jenna admitted.
“Well, then that will be a surprise.” Sardius took Jenna’s hand in his vice-grip as his way of holding hands and the prison transport took off.
***
The Xypher Zone Prison for Persons with Double X Chromosomes was not a surprise to Jenna. It was everything she imagined a dreary prison to be. It unsettled her that Ixy, Ivy, and Conrad were there every day.
The outside was made of a dark metal that appeared to have rust running down it. Not orange rust, but green rust. Everything looked blue and white under the Crying Sun in weird oscillations. Not only did the sunlight threaten to cause a seizure, but the sight and smell of the place was like a prison movie shot in the 1940s—black and white to boot.
There was no wall around the prison. No towers and no barbed wire marking the edge of the prison yard. Instead, the building rose from the harsh landscape with no apology. They didn’t need to guard their prisoners. The prisoners were already in the Xypher Zone. They were already at the building. It was clear the prisoners could leave the building if they wanted to, but where could they go? The radiation was everywhere.
Irid explained, “Prison transports are the only way on and off this rock, so our docking bay is the most vulnerable place in the prison. We have an underground hangar miles from the prison site and we take an underground rail car that connects with the basement of the prison.”
“What about your offices?” Sardius asked. “Don’t you have a dimensional portal in your offices?”
“No,” she said. “Only the men’s prison has one and it broke during the prison riot last year. Since then, the only person who has been moving freely between dimensions has been you, Sardius. Don Leo’s ship had a machine that could produce a portal. It’s yours now. Isn’t that how your people are coming to retrieve you?”
“I wanted to keep my options open,” Sardius pouted.
Irid grinned at him. She loved watching him pout.
Jenna gave him an amused eyelash flutter, but Sardius stared out the window like a marine about to be deployed into battle.
When they arrived at the underground hangar, Jenna tried to keep her distance from everyone as they made their way toward the rail car. It was the size of a sedan. Jenna couldn’t sit in it without her force field snapping the driver in half.
Sardius looked at Irid and then said with all seriousness, “We’ll have to store Jenna in the trunk.”
Jenna laughed. That was seriously the only way she could ride without coming too close to anyone.
Irid gave her a funny look. “You look serious, but she’s laughing? What’s going on here?”
Sardius gave no indication of humor as he explained, “My darling has a little problem. Regardless of how uncomfortable she is, she’s going to have to ride in the trunk. I’ll sit up front with you.”
Irid looked at Sardius like that was the weirdest thing a man had ever said to a woman to get her out of the way. The Bonewoman hesitated like she thought she ought to call him out on his poor behavior, but a glance at Jenna seemed to indicate his suggestion was somehow above board and acceptable. What finally got Irid to obey without fussing was to say nothing and give no further explanation. Sardius had thousands of followers. He hadn’t gotten to a position like that without an insane amount of magnetism. She opened the trunk for Jenna and then moved to the front of the vehicle like she did not want to see Sardius stow Jenna away in the trunk.
It was nothing. He lifted her into the truck, smiled, and joined Irid in the front.
The ride to the prison ended up being quite glorious as they went through the tunnel. The cylindrical space around them was already shielded from radiation due to it being underground, so the vehicle was mostly open. Jenna rode in her green dress with the huge slit, having not stolen a better set of clothes from the castle. Her legs hung out the back to try to give as much wiggle room as possible to her force field. She leaned back and looked at the intermittent lights seemingly flashing above her head.
Not only had she breathed the air of other planets and moons, but now she had breathed the air of an alternate dimension. Jenna’s space travels were really unfolding like a map of what you told your grandchildren and no one believed them when they repeated it.
Suddenly, she thought of her grandmother, Letty. She had paved the way and now her granddaughter was living the same way. It was funny until a rock threatened to hit her and she saw a white light as her force field deflected it.
Then it was all business.