by Mina Carter
“Uh-uh,” Gracie shook her head. “Murphy’s president now.”
“Murphy?” Jay blinked. “With the…” he made a slashing motion up the side of his face with his hand. “Well, fuck me sideways.”
Berr slid him a glance. “I do not wish to know about human sexual practices. What I do need is some live samples for the testing subroutines. I need to see how each candidate’s genetic code reacts in a multitude of tests. Since we do not have a live version of the ark here, I need samples from all of you humans aboard.”
Oh lady, no. She couldn’t allow that. Keris froze in fear for a moment, and then she backed up, shaking her head. If they got a sample of her genetic material, they’d quickly work out she wasn’t human, but a few iterations before… an adapted Lathar. From there it was an easy step to figuring out what she was.
She managed two steps backward before Jay’s hands closed over her shoulders.
“You are welcome to my DNA,” he said, “but not my wife’s. Her religious beliefs forbid it.”
Time stood still for Keris as she waited for the B’Kaar to reply. To argue that wasn’t possible. To threaten or posture to get her to give a sample. Neither of them did. Instead, Risyn simply gave a small bow. “Of course, Lady Kelly. We would not want to offend your gods.”
“Thank you,” she whispered, turning to tuck herself in against Jay’s side. He lifted his arm to wrap it around her, holding the other out for Risyn to collect a sample. The needlegun hissed as it punched his skin, the vial filling with the scarlet of his blood.
“Lady Grace?” Risyn asked, unloading Jay’s sample and handing it to Berr before loading a new vial. “May I?”
She shook her head. “I’m in the gods camp with Kelly. No can do, babycakes.”
Risyn looked like he’d swallowed an overaan slug, his brows snapping together. “We require live samples. I am prepared to allow one of you to play the religious card, but not all of you.”
“Have mine instead,” Indra shoved her arm in front of the annoyed B’Kaar. “My granddad was a right player. Figure I’ve got loads of family to track down.”
“And don’t forget,” Seren broke in, his voice as calm and restrained as Nyek’s had been, with an edge of draanth you for good measure. “All human females are under the protection of the emperor. They cannot be forced or coerced in any way. Especially not after what these females have been through. Unless you’d like to explain to his imperial highness why you bullied females who had already been brutalized by our kind?”
“And…” Jay added. “Human females are unique. If they are not comfortable, any attempted breeding with them will not result in offspring.”
Risyn blinked. “They can reject conception?”
Jay chuckled. “Some females on earth will not only reject conception but will eat their males if they are annoyed or stressed.”
“They can?” Seren’s voice rang with shock.
“Oh yeah,” Jay nodded. “There was a case not long ago where a male kept bumping into a female when he swam past her every morning. She got pissed off and boom, ate him.”
“Draanth…” Seren breathed, eyeing a smiling Gracie with new respect. She grinned and snapped her teeth at him.
“Then, thank you, Lady Indra. This is much appreciated.”
Indra nodded as Risyn took her sample. Silence fell as he loaded the two human samples into the machine and Berr set the search routines off.
“Well, well, well… we have a match already.”
“Oh?” Indra pushed forward, her face alight with interest. “Did you find me any family?”
Berr shook his head, his expression preoccupied as he opened the results. “I’m not looking for that at the moment. I was cross-referencing your samples for possible genetic matches with known Lathar.”
“Oh?” Jay rubbed Keris’s arm. “Why?”
Berr shrugged. “Out of interest to see if the algorithm works. And it does. I’ve come up with three matches for you, Lady Indra—”
“She doesn’t need to see those,” Nyek growled possessively. “She’s already mated.”
“Noted.” Berr flashed a grin. The screen in front of him flashed again and he frowned. “Well, draanth me with a pevaaris…”
“I don’t need to know about Lathar sexual kinks, mate.”
Berr snorted. “It appears we are a genetic match.”
Jay gave a hard bark of laughter. “Sorry, bud, wrong equipment.”
Berr shook his head. “This I know. Do you have any female family… a sister or daughter maybe?”
“Fuck you! Do you think I’d let any of you assholes near a kid of mine?”
Keris bit her lip. She hadn’t even thought about offspring. Could she even have them in this body? Would Jay even want offspring with her? For that matter, did he already have them?
Berr growled, half out of his seat before Risyn put a hand on his shoulder.
“If we conquer you, you won’t have any choice about that! A warrior will claim your female offspring.”
Jay didn’t back down an inch, glaring at the dark-haired cyberwarrior.
“Yeah? No problem with that. Like, he’s okay and him.” He gestured to Seren and Nyek. “It’s just you wankers I don’t like.”
Both Nyek and Seren looked stunned.
“You’d let us mate your daughter?” Seren asked in shock.
Jay waved in dismissal. “Not together and Mr. Stick-up-his-ass is already married. But yes, I would. If she wanted either of your sorry asses. But I don’t have a daughter, so it’s a moot point.”
“So no female family?” Berr asked, trying and failing to hide the thread of disappointment in his deep voice.
“Sorry, not that I know of.” Jay shrugged. “I’m adopted, so I could have, but I don’t know them from Adam.”
“Who is Adam?” Risyn asked. “And what bearing does he have on the fact you are unaware of your family?”
“Shhh, it’s just a human saying,” Gracie flapped her hand at the B’Kaar leader to shut him up. He did, looking both surprised and offended. “It means another family takes in a child. It’s common on Earth. Less so now, but it still happens.”
“Ahh.” Risyn frowned. “Human customs are strange. We can attempt to track down your biological family through the ark if you wish.”
Jay pressed his lips together and shook his head. “Don’t bother. They didn’t want me when I was born, so I don’t want them now.”
15
His translation matrix was getting much better.
Jay hefted a large bag of “big bugs” over his shoulder as he walked through the corridors, heading back to the galley. He still couldn’t read what the label said on the side of the bag, just a few letters, but it was more than he’d been able to make out even a few days ago, so that was something.
Overall, the results were hopeful that one day he might properly read Latharian, even if it was a little frustrating at the moment. Mostly because he didn’t have anyone to ask about the experimental tech. Miisan was offline and it wasn’t like he could rock up to Risyn’s office door with, “So I have some super-secret alien tech in my head installed by that AI you’re looking for. Wanna tell me how it works?”
Yeah… not happening. Not in a month of Sundays. He didn’t trust any of the B’Kaar as far as he could throw them. His instincts told him to play his cards close to his chest where the alien cyberwarriors were concerned.
“Couldn’t this place have fucking shorter corridors,” he grumbled to himself as he walked, knowing that at least one of the B’Kaar was watching him through the internal sensors. The cameras had activated in each corridor and lift he’d used on the way down and back.
He hadn’t indicated he’d seen them, not by so much as a flicker of his eyelids. They believed he was a dumb human and he was content to let them keep thinking that way. It was a tactic he’d used throughout his life and it had never let him down yet.
Quite what it said about him, that people were so quick to believe he was a litt
le slow on the uptake he didn’t want to ponder too much. It worked, and when he was ready to reveal what he was truly capable of, gave him the element of surprise.
He hid his smile at the thought of surprising those assholes Berr and Risyn, amusing himself with thoughts of the looks on their faces when they realized their mistake as he stepped out of the lift on the VIP level and headed toward the galley.
On the way he passed the door that led down to sector four but he completely ignored it. Unlike before, it was shut, all its lights powered down. It looked like it hadn’t been opened for years and he had no doubt that if he tried, it would remain locked. Miisan had buried herself so far down into the system they couldn’t reach her, so it was understandable that she would hide that aspect of the base as well.
Tension rolled through him as he reached the next corner, a sixth sense settling in his gut and warning him something was off as he turned it. His grip on the bag on his shoulder loosened as he found Risyn pinned up against a wall by Gracie with a knife jammed up close and personal against his throat.
“No means no, asshole. Understand?” she snarled into his face.
Jay let go of the bag of bugs, letting it drop unheeded to the floor by his feet. Emotion drained from him in a heartbeat as he altered his center of balance ready for a fight. He was unarmed but he didn’t care, his expression cold and hard as he looked at Gracie.
“Problem, doll?”
She didn’t take her eyes off Risyn, and at any other time the sight of the big alien threatened by the slender human woman would have been amusing. It wasn’t. The rock steady way she held the blade right up where it would do the most damage was telling. She wasn’t going for his jugular. Instead, the dagger was angled to punch through the flesh of his throat and sever the spinal cord below the skull. As a move, it wasn’t a killing blow; it was a scorched earth policy.
And that was secondary to the hard look in her eyes. If Jay didn’t miss his guess, she’d seen combat of the down and dirty type many times before.
“No,” she replied calmly. “Mr. B’Kaar here and I were discussing a difference of opinion. He has since rethought and recanted his. With an apology. Isn’t that right?”
Jay transferred his attention to the tall alien. He’d fixed his gaze on Gracie with a cross between horror and outright lust.
“Is that correct?” The thought that Risyn’s cybersuit could come barreling around the corner any second and kill them both didn’t bother him. If that happened, they’d deal with it as and when. The fact that Risyn’s freaky internal wiring wasn’t even lit up told him it wouldn’t.
Good. That gave the two humans in the room a chance if it came to a down and dirty fight.
Risyn swallowed and then winced as the edge of Gracie’s blade nicked his skin.
“Let up a moment, doll,” Jay warned her. “Or you’ll cut his damn throat there.”
She grunted and lifted the weapon a little. Not a lot. If the alien so much as breathed the wrong way, she could punch the vicious dagger through his spine in the blink of an eye.
“Thank you,” Risyn said, his voice husky. All that moved was his mouth and jaw, his hands still held spread out to his sides. “Humans are… not as harmless as rumor had led me to believe.”
“No shit, we’re not. What gave it away?” Jay snorted. “Don’t answer that,” he added, knowing how damn literal the Lathar were. “It was a rhetorical question. Gracie, doll, you planning on slicing and dicing the guy or are you letting him go?”
The slender human pushed away from the tall alien warrior, backing off a few steps, the dagger held by her side in a deceptively casual grip.
“I’m done.”
“Excellent.” Jay looked back at the B’Kaar. “I suggest you leave, now. While we’re both in a good mood.”
“Wise suggestion.” Risyn stood to his full height, rubbing at his throat. A thin red line announced where he and Gracie had had their… disagreement.
“Once again, Lady Grace, my apologies,” he said with a small bow. Exchanging a glance with Jay, he nodded. “Major Stephens.” And then he walked away with all the dignity a man who had just been soundly shown up by a girl could muster.
Jay waited until he’d rounded the corner and disappeared from view before looking at Gracie. The smile fell from his face.
“Colony commission my ass,” he growled.
Gracie winked as she slid the dagger away with a practiced gesture. It wasn’t a Latharian weapon, but full-on human combat nastiness.
He blocked her path as she began to walk past him, grabbing her arm. “Who the fuck are you?”
She looked down at his hand, raising an eyebrow. He’d made sure to grab her on the side she’d sheathed the dagger, but it wouldn’t have mattered if not. He knew she was more dangerous than she appeared now, so she’d lost the element of surprise.
“Someone who means you no harm,” she replied, meeting his gaze and then shaking his hand off her arm. “That’s all you need to know. You’ll be safer that way.”
Keeping eye contact, she backed away and then turned and walked off.
Jay growled, scrubbing a hand over his short hair before recovering his bag of bugs. “Wheels within wheels. If I’d wanted this fucker, I’d have become a spy.”
Draanthing humans.
Risyn turned the corner, still stewing after his little encounter with the humans. The females were nothing like the docile and obedient potential mates they should be, grateful for the offer of protection from a male.
Instead of the demure interest he’d expected from Lady Gracie when he’d offered his claim, perhaps a little blushing and coy looking away, she’d raised an eyebrow and roundly rebuffed him. His inexperience in dealing with her species had hampered him. Instinct had told him that all he needed to do was crowd her against the wall and kiss her—a move that would surely remind her of her proper place in the universe and have her melting against him…
It hadn’t. All that had gained him was a dagger in his throat and the scorn of both the female and Stephens, the human male, who had come upon their little scene. B’Kaar he might be, but he’d suddenly become aware that neither of the humans looked at all intimidated by him. In fact, they looked very dangerous indeed. More than that… their relaxed demeanor suggested they were both used to the violence of combat.
Draanth. That meant that they… he had completely misread the dynamic in the little group with the K’Vass warriors.
He rubbed at his neck again. The thin wound she’d inflicted wasn’t serious to anything other than his pride.
“My lord?”
Risyn jerked his head up to see his second in command, Berr, walking down the corridor toward him. The warrior’s heavy brows were snapped together in a black line across his face.
“Your kasivar was broadcasting elevated readings,” he stated, coming to a stop before Risyn.
His sharp gaze landed on the thin line of blood on his leader’s throat but he was too experienced to ask or indicate that he thought Risyn required aid. Such a requirement would hint at weakness and leave him open to challenge. Not that he thought Berr would challenge him. They’d been comrades since they’d both first arrived from the training halls as newly minted adult warriors.
“Possibly,” Risyn replied, careful to project a bored note into his voice. “I had an… altercation with some of the humans. They are not as I expected.”
Berr nodded. “Much of the information we were given seems to be incorrect. They are far more capable and dangerous than anticipated. Facts the K’Vass appear to have kept to themselves.”
“Yessss,” Risyn bared his teeth and then growled as he dropped his head back, running a hand through his short hair in frustration. “Something I will level a complaint about with the Imperial Court since it has hampered our mission here.”
They still had not found that draanthing AI. He didn’t for a moment believe it had been destroyed, no matter what condition the AI housing was in. It had no doubt uploaded
itself to the base’s computer core and hidden somewhere. In a facility this large, it could take months to root the draanthic thing out. Especially given that the records they had access to, draanth, even the base schematics were incomplete. For example, there were too many doors in this corridor.
He looked at Berr.
“There are too many doors in this corridor.”
Berr frowned, looking around them for a second, and then his ke’lath flared. Then he swore. “Draanth it. There are.”
Risyn’s own ke’lath flared as he checked again and then moved to stand in front of the center door. “This one isn’t on the records.”
A query of the central computer didn’t reply with the pingback, the door remaining shut. Risyn growled. “Get a team down here. I want this open. Now.”
Ten minutes later, the door was open and a whole new sector of the base was available to the B’Kaar. Risyn growled as he stood in the middle of the central lab, his pale gaze sweeping over the biotubes and the printer.
“The AI is biological,” he hissed, focusing on the empty printer capsule and the remnants of congealed bio-gel on the floor. “One of the humans is the AI. Find them!” he snarled. “Now!”
16
“You need to leave. Now.”
“Miisan!”
Keris whirled around, heart stalling in her chest as Miisan appeared, fully formed in the middle of the hangar she and Jay were working in. It was the first time any of them had seen the AI since the B’Kaar had arrived. But she looked agitated and not at all like her usual composed self. A frown marred her beautiful, classically Latharian features and she fidgeted from holographic foot to foot.
“What’s wrong?” Jay demanded, at Keris’s side in a heartbeat. “Are you okay? Should you be showing yourself?”
“I’m fine. The internal sensors are off in here,” the AI waved her hand in dismissal. “But you have to go. The B’Kaar found the lab and the printer. They know an AI attained a body. You need to go, now!”
Panic filled Keris, rooting her to the spot. The B’Kaar knew about her. They would hunt her down and dissect her to find out how she worked, how an AI consciousness had managed to meld with a biological body. She knew the science. It shouldn’t be possible. Draanth it shouldn’t even be possible for even an organic being to remote avatar a printed body permanently. So it certainly shouldn’t be possible for an AI to do so.
