It had been a law since the Earth was conquered six hundred years ago for children to be forcibly removed from their parents at the age of 11. After your third child was taken, both parents were separated and sent to work in the mines or in the manors serving the Chimra overlords. If you failed to produce children after five years, you were sent at that point. If you refused to “take a mate”, as the Chimra referred to it, by your 25th year, you were sent to the mines then too. Once you had your first child, if you failed to have another within five years, the Chimra “fixed” you.

Once taken, you would never see your child again. Once separated, you would most likely never see your mate again.

Logan refused to allow this to happen.

Ever since Logar had been born 10 and a half years ago, Logan had known he could not. He had held him every chance he got as a baby. He remembered waking up in the middle of the night to find Logar snuggled up against his back at a year and a half old. Or watching him for hours nursing at his mother’s breast as he slowly fell asleep.

Kianna and Logan were in agreement. They had to make it to the Stavinos. The people beyond the sands. The last vestige of rebellion. Legends.

If they got there and the Stavinos were not there, they would become Stavinos. It mattered not if others waited for them. They would not lose their son.

First however, Logan would have to do something about their tracking chips. He lacked the skill to remove them, and it was rumored that if you tried, it would send signals to your brain that killed you. He didn’t doubt it. The tracking chips supressed his and Kianna’s ability to reproduce and if an overlord was so inclined they inflicted great pain.

The chips were implanted somewhere in your body, a random location for everyone to make it more difficult to remove. Through sheer luck theirs were in appendages. He had found that his was implanted in the back of his left hand. Kianna’s was implanted in her second to smallest toe on her right foot. Logar’s, thankfully, was not implanted yet. Until you were taken, you simply wore an array of earings that served the same purpose. Logar would have no trouble cutting off the ear and the toe. The problem was going to be in cutting of his hand.