Ignatias thinks he's rescuing a human pet from abuse. It's up to Kasi to convince this Talin to keep Sorana colony's secrets and maybe get him to see her as more than a pet.
Ignatias
Unable to find a human pet of his own, disheartened and lonely, Admiral Ignatias agrees to inspect a Talin colonial planet on the fringes of the Empire for the Committee of Pet Welfare. If he can't have a pet of his own, then he wants to make sure his fellow Talins are taking good care of theirs. Arriving early and sneaking down to the planet, he witnesses many shocking sights. Not only are there far more humans on the colony than are registered with the Committee, but the humans are running loose all over the place, without proper guidance or even collars. Then he sees something so much worse-humans laboring!
The Talins of Sorana colony are perpetrating acts of reprehensible abuse. Humans need to be sheltered and coddled. They're far too delicate to be doing many of the things he observes.
When he finds a woman in ragged clothes, sweating and wrestling with an auto-planter by herself, he snaps. With no real plan, he grabs her, intending to make his way off the planet with this one poor soul and to come back with reinforcements to save the rest of the humans. But getting off the planet proves harder than he expected, especially when his instincts are to soothe and pamper the little female human instead of focusing on escaping.
Kasi
Kasi couldn't have known sneaking out to check on her experimental crops one last time would get her kidnapped. Human-napped? Whatever, she's now somewhere deep in the vast forests of Sorana with a Talin that doesn't realize humans can be so much more than pets. Admiral Ignatias might be trying to save her, but if he reports what's going on, the colony will be in big trouble. The kind of trouble that could get Talins executed and humans "reallocated" to different Talin owners.
Can she convince him to listen to her? And more importantly, can she get him to trust her? The consequences are dire. If she fails, she'll have to choose between saving Sorana and saving him.
