Unease prickled along Qellsala’s spine as she glowered at the woman before her. It appeared that Dr. Glendor had spoken truths about their leader because a crowd had gathered on the deck where Qellsala had been brought and dumped. They were swarming to watch a fight. Qell would be more than happy to give them one. Their leader was staring at her, so Qellsala kept an even glare back. She was not afraid of this woman and she would happily prove it.

“Impressive work, Dr. Glendor.”

“Thank you, General Bandsone.”

“Did it fire at all?”

“Yes, but it was only a partial.” Qell watched as the doctor stepped forward with a device in her hand that she showed to the leader.

“That was a partial? Quite the little powerhouse we dredged up, hmm?” This time, the woman spoke directly to Qellsala, who was more than happy to respond with a snarl and a flare of her spinal fin. “I see there’s still some fight left in you. Do you want to leave? Because you can.”

Though her tone was condescending, Qell’s aggression still faltered for a moment. Of course, she wanted to leave, she had not wanted to be dragged up on the ship in the first place. She eyed the woman suspiciously. There was a catch to that statement.

The General grinned back. “All you have to do is win a fight. Shouldn’t be too hard for you, hmm? I’m sure you’ve had your fair share of scraps in the ocean. You and I, one on one. If you win, you have the right to kill me if you choose, and no one aboard this vessel will stop you from leaving. Sound fair?”

It was a trick. Qell knew it was a trick. The woman would not put her life on the line if she did not have some sort of guarantee that she would be fine. And if any miernes had succeeded in the past of winning their freedom, the humans would no longer offer this opportunity or would have corrected whatever went wrong. She was no fool to imagine that they would offer even the slightest opportunity for freedom after the effort it took to haul in a miernes. Besides, they had put an awful lot of work into ‘processing’ Qellsala in addition to capturing her. It would all be a waste of time if it were easy or possible to win this fight.

But Qell had a lot to lose, and her children still needed her. Zazhiri had been learning to hunt, and could maybe make it on her own in better times, but she worried that the two would come looking for her and get caught too. She could not bear the thought of that happening, or of either of them starving because of her folly. She needed to ensure she made it back to them, no matter what. She would fight, and she would hope she could find a way around whatever precautions or tricks they had set up.

So she flexed her talons and growled at the woman again, this time, openly baring her fangs.

The General grinned back. “Is that a yes?”

Qellsala snarled and flared her spinal fin. As she did, her plasma light ignited once more, more vibrantly than the last time, and she narrowed her eyes as she felt strength flood her previously exhausted limbs. She would pay for the extra energy later, but for now, she could feel it oozing from every pore of her body. She only needed one good swipe of her claws to end the fight in this state and she was not going to take any chances.

The General’s grin only widened. “Pulling out all the stops, huh? I’m flattered. It is an impressive fire too. Come on then, if you want your freedom, I expect you to earn it.”

Qellsala wasted no time. She had endured enough aboard this human vessel and did not want to leave her kids any longer than she already had. She planted her palms on the deck of the ship and dug her claws in for a better hold before she swung her tail like a bludgeon at the woman’s legs. If she broke them, it would be even better, but at the minimum, she wanted the General off her feet and at her mercy.

But the woman was nimble and jumped back just in time for Qell’s swing to miss. “You’re fast. Good, I can use that,” the General mocked.

Qellsala hissed at her again and spun her tail so that it was under her. She got impressive air by launching herself up and at the woman. It became obvious that the General had been in several skirmishes with a miernes before, because she was completely unphased, and had the strength and speed to keep up enough that she raised both hands and caught Qell around the neck, though the force and Qell’s weight forced her to stumble a little.

Qellsala had anticipated that the human leader favoured the controlling position of having someone by the throat, so even as the General squeezed, she wrapped her tail around her leg and heaved. It force the General off balance enough that they both went tumbling to the ground.

Qell recovered quickly and lunged so that she was on top of the woman, pinning her down with her fangs bared. She raised a hand with flexed talons ready to gouge the General. She would not kill unless she had to, but she was going to leave the woman with a permanent mark to remember her by if nothing else.

But the General still seemed unfazed. “Do it,” she urged with a grin.

But Qell could not. Her aggression faltered to confusion for a moment as her entire body felt squeezed. Her raised arm shook with her effort to bring it down on her foe, but she could not move. Not her arm, not her tail, none of her muscles would respond to the commands she was giving her body.

Rattled, Qell backed off and instantly all the pressure faded. Her arm unfroze and she was able to lower it, her tail lashed and she growled. Without missing a beat, she tried again, and just like before, she was overcome with a pinching sensation. This time, the brace that they had secured to her beeped softly as it tightened and she lost the ability to move again. She did not understand. Even if it was restricting her movement, it did not cover her entire body and should not hinder her tail. But it was.

Below her, the General grinned. “What’s the matter?” she taunted. “I thought you wanted to fight for your freedom? Here, I’ll show you.” The woman pulled her legs up while Qellsala was still frozen, planted the bottoms of her boots against Qell’s chest, and launched her away.

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Qellsala hit the ground heavily with a groan and shook herself as she propped herself back up. She could move again now. She stared at one hand and flexed her talons. She did not understand why sometimes she could and sometimes she could not. Her disorientation caused her plasma to fizzle and the bright colouring of her scales darkened to normal once more.

The General clucked her tongue. “Are you tapping out? Pity, I thought you would put up more of a fight, but it looks like you’re giving up.”

Qellsala snarled at her and flared her back fin once again. She was not quitting. But she needed a moment to think, to reorient herself and understand what was going on. She twisted to examine the crowd of human soldiers watching silently at the skirmish. When her gaze fell on Dr. Glendor, Qell’s eyes narrowed to pinpricks. The woman was not watching the fight. Instead, her gaze was trained on the same device she had played with during the processing. It must be a way to control the harness secured to her body.

Betrayal enraged Qellsala further and she lunged at a new target. Since the doctor was not paying attention, it was easy to sweep her legs out from under her so that she collapsed to the deck with a cry of shock. Qell wasted no time bringing her armoured limb down on the device that had fallen. It cracked and sparked as it broke into several pieces from the blow.

Then she rounded on the doctor, who still wore a pained and startled expression. Although she had been halfway decent to Qellsala by the end, she was still responsible for putting the contraption on her in the first place and Qellsala was furious that she dared interfere with the conflict between her and the General, so she raised her hand to the woman the same way she had to the General moments prior. But once again, her arm froze before she could make contact and Qell’s heart began to hammer in her chest. She had broken the device and incapacitated Dr. Glendor, so why was she still unable to strike? Was there another device?

Before she could scan the crowd to check, the General reached them and jabbed a stick into Qellsala’s side that sparked and Qell shrieked at the agonizing burn that spread through her and forced her body to collapse with convulsions. When she recovered, she saw the blistering skin darkening and beginning to peel on the edge of her belly. They had caught her right on the scale line so that damage would be done to the sensitive flesh.

General Bandsone grabbed her by the chin and dug her nails into Qellsala’s flesh. “This fight is between the two of us, you were not to go after any of my soldiers. I thought sirens had a bit more honour than to cheat,” she hissed. Then she glanced at the broken remains of the device and her grin returned. “Oh…did you think the tablet was controlling your brace?” She clucked her tongue and shook her head. “You can break every gadget on this ship, but that’s not how it works. Tell you what, I’ll change our arrangement just a little.” She grabbed Qell’s hand and angled it so that Qell’s talons were just barely touching her throat. “I’ll release you and every other siren aboard this ship, if you can manage to draw a little blood. Go ahead.”

Qell’s brows furrowed in concentration. This should not be hard. All she had to do was flex one finger and it would pull a line open on the thin skin of the General’s throat. But no matter how much energy and focus she poured into moving one finger, her body would not open, and the brace continued to squeeze at her.

“Back off a moment,” the General suggested as she released Qellsala’s hand.

It was instantaneous that Qellsala could pull her arm in. She twisted her wrist to stare at her palm and flexed her fingers. She chewed on her lip as she contemplated, then turned and slashed at open air. Her talons whistled through the air with the speed and strength she put in and nothing restricted her movement. Then she eyed the General suspiciously and reached out her hand to touch her. She moved slowly, then quickly, and her hand pressed flat to the General’s arm with no restriction. It had nothing to do with how fast she moved or the position she tried to move from. She did not understand. She sat there for a moment, trying to work out how they were stopping her. She flicked her wrist swiftly and subtly in a way that should have nicked the human’s skin easily, but her wrist locked before she had even moved it a fraction. Qellsala snarled in frustration.

“Have you figured it out, yet?” the General taunted.

Qellsala growled at her and swallowed a lump in her throat. She did not want them to see how her eyes were beginning to water with frustration. None of them should be able to stop her that quickly, human reaction speeds were too slow and their eyesight was not great enough to have seen her hand move just now. She did not understand and she hated it.

The General’s smile widened further. “The lovely thing about those braces is that none of us are controlling it. There’s no remote, no one manning the kill switch on your attacks. It all comes from you. You control it. You see, the technology isn’t advanced enough to read your mind, but it is studying your brainwaves. It knows when your motions become aggressive before you do, and then it restricts every major pressure point and nerve cluster in your body and sends a signal to your brain to stop. You have full range of motion so long as your intent is not to harm another soul aboard this vessel.”

Qellsala’s heart dropped in her chest and she twisted to better examine the brace. If what the General claimed was true, then Qell could not attack at all while it was on.

“It can’t be removed, so spare yourself the effort of trying. And there will be no more using your tail like a bludgeon either.”

Qell pushed away from her for a moment and scanned the crowd. Her throat constricted. She could not attack. They had rendered her ability to defend herself completely incapacitated. Her ears lowered with distress and she pulled her tail closer to her torso on instinct. Even if she could get back in the water…if she could not fight, she was no better than prey waiting to be picked off, and what would that mean for Zazhiri and Colkal? Could she even hunt, or would the brace stop her from clamping her jaws on a fish?

The General began to laugh. She patted Qellsala on the head and Qell growled, but the sound was halfhearted. They both knew that her aggression was just a bluff now. “I enjoy this moment. All of you sirens have the same reaction upon realizing your helplessness and the expression is priceless. I trust that now you understand your situation. It’s best you forget the meaning of the word freedom, because you’ll never experience it again. But don’t fret, you’ll get a chance to use those claws and teeth of yours again. Your brace will not allow you to harm yourself, any of the other sirens under our control, or anyone else in this navy. But there will still be plenty of targets for you to take out, and you will.”

Qell hissed at her. She may be helpless to defend herself while aboard the ship, but that did not mean she would obey this human leader, or kill for her.

“No, you don’t think so? Well, I guess that will just have to be another lesson that you learn. You belong to me now and you’ll follow orders or you’ll face serious consequences. We have the means to break you, so I suggest you fall in line fast.” She reached out and grabbed Qell by the chin, and angled her head for a better look at her still-tender neck.

She elevated her voice to address someone out of Qell’s line of sight. “See to it that One-Four-Nine-Two here is added to the mapping rotation first thing tomorrow morning.”

“But General…it’s had no training.”

The General grinned again and shoved Qellsala’s face away. “I believe that trial by fire is the best way for these beasts to learn. This tussle is over. Get it out of my sight and put it with the others.”